News that Ankara will abandon the Russian Mir payment system due to threats of US-authored sanctions. Even if the withdrawal of Mir will impact the Turkish economy, it prefers not to anger the Biden administration, according to experts telling Sputnik.
US Doubles Down on Imperatives
Russia has been developing alternative means to drop the US dollar and western currencies with a native system for banking, reported Sputnik News.
Several monetary systems are the System for Transfer of Financial Messages (STFM) and the Mir Card for credit and debit. In 2019, Turkish banks used it to facilitate transactions between Russian tourists for goods and services, noted Windobi.
In the middle of September, the US treasury threatened all banking systems, even those outside of the US, as subject to its blanket ban on the Mir card outside Russia.
The US has placed secondary sanctions to stop other nations from dealing with Moscow; some of these institutions are banks in Turkey. One of these institutions is the Ziraat Bank, which told the outlet it was coerced by sanctions to sever itself from the Russian banking system.
One of these specialists, Gareth Jenkins, who is connected to several institutions, is studying the impact of such blanket bans via US-authored sanctions. He added that the economic effect of the pullout from Russia's Mir payment systems would then presumably be less than if it had occurred during the summer when a lot of Russian tourists had been touring Turkey.
Furthermore, many Russians in Turkey are going to visit, and the cessation of Mir would make it more difficult for many to make payments, citing YRT News.
Moscow, Turkey Relations
Moscow and Turkey have had good relations as co-partners in critical areas where they both benefit, but it has not always been smooth sailing.
One example is Washington, which has not approved its link with Moscow, but the last straw for the Biden administration is seeing President Tayyip Erdogan do a tightrope.
By this, it means not condemning Russian President Vladimir Putin for the special operation in Ukraine. The US government does not want Turkey to have an independent stance, hence the threat of secondary sanctions if the Mir card remains.
Jenkin mentioned that Moscow knows the Turkish leader must have a link to Russia, especially with the state of the economy. He remarked that angering Putin is more important than concerning itself with what Joe Biden thinks at times.
Due to sanctions, Turkey appears to be ready to abandon the Mir system; how to keep the economic link intact to ward off rash punitive actions.
Jenkins explained how to have an alternative to the Russian system, claiming that Erdogan will struggle to find something as good as Mir. Furthermore, the US will intimidate leaders like him into forcing the country to follow the White House's lead.
Another is that Erdogan is facing another election this coming June, and the crisis will have an opening to lessen his chances of re-election.
Ankara is squished by US intent for it to abandon Russia's mir payment systems by the US-authored sanctions, which is illegal according to some sectors, but no one stops Washington.
Related Article : Turkish President Erdogan To Decide If Russian Mir Payment Will Stay in Banking System
