Turkey has learned to disguise Russian oil as its own. After that, it exports it to the EU, which enables the Kremlin to earn billions of euros for the war against Ukraine.
Turkey and Russia found a loophole in Western sanctions
As Politico managed to find out, it was Turkey that recently managed to turn into a strategic stop for Russian fuel products, which are then delivered to the EU.
Journalists and Western analysts have concluded that over the past year, Ankara has increased its purchases from Russia by 105% compared to the previous 12 months.
What is also important to understand is that during the same period, Turkish fuel exports to the EU jumped by 107%.
This does not mean that every shipment of fuel arriving in the EU from Turkey is Russian. Turkey has refineries that can process almost 1 million barrels of oil a day. And Turkish firms are also likely to resell some non-Russian fuel to the EU, Politico explains.
Ankara and Moscow manage to deceive Europe, because they found another loophole in the sanctions.
It is worth paying attention to the fact that, despite the restriction, there is a permit to import into the EU "mixed" fuel, if it is labeled as non-Russian.
How much has the Russian Federation managed to earn in Europe?
The journalists concluded that the scheme brought the Kremlin up to €3 billion from just three ports (Ceyhan, Marmara-Ereglisi and Mersin) in the 12 months after the EU banned Russian fuel on 23 February.
The southeastern port of Ceyhan, for example, has limited road and rail links to oil refineries, giving it little means of receiving large shipments of fuel other than tankers docked at its berths.
In addition, it is indicated that during the last year the port managed to receive about 22 million barrels of fuel, 92% of which came from the aggressor country of Russia.
According to analysts, this is three times more than it imported from Russia two years ago.
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- Додати до обраного
