Europe Must Clamp Down on Russian Oil Flows Through Turkey
Between February 2023 and February 2024, European Union member states imported €3.1 billion worth of oil products from three Turkish ports that are heavily dependent on seaborne fossil fuels from Russia. The bloc must close this sanctions loophole to stop funding the Kremlin’s war of aggression against Ukraine.
SOFIA – To appreciate the booming trade in Russian fossil fuels, one need only go to a rooftop cafe along the Bosphorus. Back in March, while sipping tea on an Istanbul terrace, I watched as, over the course of two hours, at least four tankers – later identified through open-source marine-traffic websites – carried Russian crude and refined products through one of the world’s busiest shipping chokepoints.