Page 16 - bne IntelliNews monthly magazine May 2024

16 I Companies & Markets bne May 2024
US sanctions enforcers want more compliance, less defiance. / SanctionsAssociation.org, cc-by-sa 4.0
to have potential military uses, Kutlu Karavelioglu, chairman of the 22,000-member Turkish Machinery Exporters’ Association, was cited as saying by Bloomberg on April 5.
A billion dollars represented around a third of last year’s sales to Russia, he reportedly added, noting that machine tools, pumps and electric motors have seen some of the biggest drops so far in Turkey’s dwindling trade with Russian market.
“It doesn’t seem possible for any serious corporate machinery manufacturer to sustain its previous interest in Russia in the face of increasing pressure on the banking system and supply chains,” Karavelioglu was also reported as saying.
The blow to trade with Russia will not go down well with Turkish officials struggling to correct imbalances in Turkey’s
crisis-stricken economy, partly with efforts to drive down the chronic current account deficit.
Like Turkey, China has also lately intensified due diligence on bank clients’ connections to Russia. A big concern is
a US threat made in December to hit financial institutions enabling sanctions-busting trade with secondary sanctions.
Highlighting the growing sanctions crackdown on exports and re-exports to Russia of components like machine parts, chips and circuit boards, Tan Albayrak, a sanctions and export controls lawyer at Reed Smith, told Bloomberg. “Most of these items have both civilian and military applications. They can be used in a washing machine – or a battle tank.”
Amid various reports indicating the sanctions regime applied
to Turkey-Russia trade has been tightened to clear impact, Turkish media outlet Ekonomim reported in early March that shipping companies were the latest to feel the effects of “the West’s very tight blockade against the Turkish banking system”.
Also in early March, mid-sized Turkish oil trans-shipment terminal Dortyol – at the centre of controversy in January when US senators claimed that “masked Russian oil” supplied via the facility even ended up in US warships after being processed at a Greek refinery – announced it would no longer accept Russian imports.
In late February, the US Treasury Department pointed to data showing how the Biden administration’s threat to hit foreign financial institutions with secondary sanctions had significantly impacted financial flows between Russia and countries including Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and Kazakhstan.
Over 22,000 Serbs sign petition to save bombed Belgrade landmark from Kushner development plans
bne IntelliNews
Over 22,000 people have signed a petition calling for the bombed General Staff building in central Belgrade to be preserved.
Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of former US president Donald Trump, is understood to be planning to develop the site of the General Staff building, bombed during the Nato bombardment of Serbia and Montenegro 25 years ago, as a hotel.
The General Staff building is still partly standing, but derelict. The building that once housed the Ministry of Defence of
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Yugoslavia is situated a busy intersection in central Belgrade. In its heyday it was seen as a prime example of Yugoslav post- war modernist architecture.
News of Kushner’s plans to develop the site have sparked a backlash in Serbia.
The petition’s organiser, the Kreni-Promeni (Go-Change) movement, announced on March 25 that over 10,000 signatures had flooded in within a mere 24 hours.