European leader: Turkey used to evade sanctions

Latvian Prime Minister Krisjanis Karins said traders “used Turkey, Kazakhstan and Armenia to escape European Union sanctions against Russia.”

Karins referred to Turkey in his speech at the meeting he held with his Estonian and Lithuanian counterparts in Tallinn, the Estonian capital. Speaking at the joint press conference, Karins said: “If we look at the data, we see that the trade of countries like Kazakhstan, Armenia and Turkey has increased a lot in certain areas. “It seems clear that traders are reshipping products to Russia because these countries are not complying with the sanctions,” she said.

Noting that companies trying to avoid increasingly tough sanctions should not be given a vacuum, the Latvian leader said that for this purpose, countries like Turkey must be persuaded to join the sanctions and Europe must act together. .

The US and the EU have been increasing pressure on Turkey regarding sanctions against Russia in the recent period.