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US sanctions on Turkey for Russia purchases could ground Brit F-35s

Anonymous Coward
Anonymous Coward

If I go into a DIY shop in let's say Bulgaria, 90% of the cheap and mid-tire power tools are not made in China. They are made in Turkey. Same for the rest of the region and especially ex-USSR Central Asia. So all Putin had to do to get Erdogan into grovel state was to deny turkish truckers transit permits and tourist traffic for 3 months.

You're not often wrong, but today is that day!

Turkey's main export partners don't feature Russia (or any Russian-influenced country) in the top 15 export markets. Not to mention that Turkey has a land border with Bulgaria, so doesn't need Russian influenced transit permits for any EU country, or more widely at least its top 19 non-Russian trade partners. And given that Erdogan's repeatedly shown that he doesn't give a shit about domestic population through contrived terror attacks, or through political repression, you really are not going to convince me that he would give a toss about Russia restricting relatively minor trade arrangements that would probably be more detrimental to the exportee nations.

Russia itself is destination for a mere 1.2% of Turkish exports. with Belarus, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan and Georgia perhaps bring that up to a total of around 5%. And Russia's largest import from Turkey? Citrus fruit. If a few lemon farmers have a hard time, you really think Erdogan's going to give a tinker's cuss? And what does Turkey buy from Russia? Largely fuel, followed by metals. Those are both liquid commodity markets, so other than some short term inconvenience, the Russians have no hold on Turkey for those.

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