Russia is considering canceling a raft of joint business projects with Ankara after Turkey shot down of one of its warplanes, top government officials said on Wednesday, igniting concern among Turkish companies from the tourism, construction and food sectors, which all benefit from Russian business.
On Tuesday, Turkey said its F-16 fighter jets shot down a Russian aircraft for violating Turkish airspace while Moscow denied any such violation. The incident is likely to deal the biggest blow to economic ties between the two countries. Russia and Turkey have important trade and economic ties — their bilateral trade volume in 2014 touched $30 billion. Ankara and Moscow had earlier vowed to raise this figure to as much as $100 billion by the year 2020. Shortly after the downing of a Russian warplane, Moscow said Ankara could expect to be on the receiving end of economic and business sanctions, warning that the move could result in canceling some important joint projects. Initially, Russia came up with a number of economic retaliations relating to critical sectors such as tourism and food.
Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said on Wednesday that Turkish firms — who are active in everything from construction to retailing — could see their market share in Russia shrink. “The direct consequences could lead to our refusal to take part in a whole raft of important joint projects and Turkish companies losing their positions on the Russian market,” Medvedev said in a statement. Separately on Wednesday, Russia said it is banning imports of poultry meat from a Turkish supplier effective Dec. 1. Russia’s agricultural watchdog Rosselkhoznadzor announced a ban will be imposed on Turkish poultry exporter Standart Gıda Sanayi. Standart is one of 10 Turkish poultry exporter firms to Russia. In another blow to small and medium-sized Turkish exporters to Russia, a flower exporter, Tempo Tarım, in Antalya also said it had withdrawn goods bound for Russia early on Wednesday. The Antalya firm said it will likely cancel a planned delivery to Russia of a truck of flowers scheduled for next week.