Turkey Has Been Identified as a Key Link in Circumventing Russian Oil Sanctions — Intelligence Online
Turkish shipping companies have become one of the main tools helping Russia circumvent Western sanctions on oil exports. According to sources, Turkey has become a key logistics hub for Russia’s “shadow fleet,” which is used for covert energy shipments.
The shipping company EMT Gemi İşletmeciliği AS, which was hit with European Union sanctions on June 15 due to its ties to the Russian “shadow fleet,” is just one of many Turkish companies involved in transporting Russian oil.
As Intelligence Online notes, investigators from European Union countries and Ukraine have concluded that there is “an entire ecosystem of private Turkish shipping operators” that has effectively become a key logistics hub for Moscow.
The publication explains that Turkey has not joined Western sanctions against Russia. This has created a legal framework under which local companies can operate vessels subject to EU and UK sanctions without violating Turkish law.
“It is precisely this legal asymmetry that the network exploits, transforming Istanbul into a new Russian economic capital, where contracts are signed, control is transferred, special-purpose companies are created, and vessels change hands entirely legally,” the article states.
According to the authors of the investigation, it is precisely this model that allows Russia to maintain oil exports despite international sanctions.
As a reminder, at the summit in Brussels on June 18, the European Union decided for the first time to extend sanctions against Russia not for the standard six months, but for a full year. In doing so, the EU is departing from its previous practice of regularly reviewing sanctions every six months.
The EU Council is expected to officially approve the new sanctions package in the coming weeks, according to Deutsche Welle.
