Turkey says US allowed it to pay for gas through Russiaʼs “Gazprombank”, despite sanctions

The US will make an exception for Turkey from sanctions against Russiaʼs “Gazprombank”. That is, Ankara will be able to continue paying for Russian gas supplies through it.

This was stated by the Minister of Energy and Natural Resources of Turkey Alparslan Bayraktar, Bloomberg reports.

The decision came after a series of talks between representatives of the Turkish Ministry of Energy, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the US side. Ankara had previously been pushing for an exemption, believing that sanctions against “Gazprombank” directly affected Turkish-Russian gas trade.

Bayraktar also warned that the lack of an exception for Turkey could mean that “Turkey itself becomes a target of sanctions”. In parallel, the Turkish side was consulting with Russia on finding alternative payment mechanisms.

In addition to Turkey, Hungary and several other European Union countries requested exemption from the sanctions. On December 19, Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó confirmed that the United States had granted such permission.

• “Gazprombank” is a channel for Russia to purchase military equipment for the war against Ukraine, it makes payments to the Russian military, and it also accepted payment for supplies of Russian gas.
• On November 21, 2024, the United States imposed sanctions on “Gazprombank”. They believe this will make it more difficult for the Kremlin to circumvent sanctions and finance the army.

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