A LUCRATIVE PEACE FOR PUTIN
August 8, 2022 -Durt Fibo

Last Friday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan scurried to the Russian Black Sea resort city of Sochi for a marathon meeting with Vladimir Putin, specifics of which are only now emerging from the shadows.

Putin began the conference by announcing that he was expecting Erdogan to sign an agreement to boost trade and economic ties. While commencing with a conclusion might indicate Putin’s weakening strategic skills, the summit had in fact been publicized as the great chance to formalize “cooperation in the transport, agriculture, and construction industries.”

Among other deals, Erdogan conceded to Russia’s demand that gas sales would be adapted to transactions in rubles (to prop up the Russian currency). Turkey buys about 45% of its gas from Russia. In exchange for the gradual conversion to ruble wrangling, both leaders made a joint commitment to wage war on whomever they deemed to be terrorist groups operating in Syria. This last bit happens to coincide with attacks Erdogan has been planning to kick off quite soon. Turkey also appears to have agreed to start selling their drones to Russia. A full-fledged NATO member, Turkey has until now been selling those same Bayraktar TB2 drones to Ukraine.

But the crowning achievement of the meeting was the arrangement for 5 of the leading Turkish banks to begin working together with the Russian payment system Mir. Mir (мир) is a particular Russian word meaning both “peace” and “world”. As a payment system and card issuer, it is also a major substitute for the SWIFT processors which have sanctioned Russia for its aggression against Ukraine.

To glorify this sanctions-sabotage, Erdogan exclaimed: “There are serious developments regarding the work that Turkish banks are doing with the Russian Mir card. This is a relief for both Russian tourists and Turkey.” An estimated 4 million Russian “tourists” are in Turkey at present, having relocated since the start of the Ukraine war, but most of them are demonstrably there to escape the constrictions of Putin’s wartime regime.