Turkish customs authorities are reported to have put a sudden stop to the transit transport of sanctioned goods to Russia and Belarus. Cargo that is sanctioned by the EU can no longer be shipped through Turkey if the destination country is Russia or Belarus, people from the industry said.

This update has been doing rounds since last week, although no official communication has gone out from the Turkish customs authorities. “There is no official announcement, or list of what can and cannot be transported”, explains by a logistics company in Turkey.

“This is what forwarders and brokers came to find out when the software system that is used to fill in the product to be shipped suddenly reported that the shipment of certain products to Russia and Belarus was blocked.”

Officially, products that are sanctioned by the EU cannot be transported to Russia or Belarus if they originate from an EU country. Consequently, the transit of these goods would be a breach of this sanction law. However, in practice Turkey has been the main gateway for the transport of sanctioned goods to Russia and Belarus.

According to the Moscow Times, Vladimir Putin signed a parallel import scheme with Turkey in June, which allows for the continued supply of sanctioned goods to Russia that were originally intended for foreign markets without approval from trademark owners and exempts such imports from import duties. The same source mentions that in August, Turkey had exceeded $738 million in exports to Russia in one month, an all-time record.

Article source: Railfreight