On the basis of what scheme did Russia want to create a "dollar reserve" in Turkey?

^{Photo: Reuters}
After the freezing of its foreign exchange reserves, Russia tried to create an “offshore dollar reserve” in Turkey to finance its foreign operations while circumventing American sanctions. This was reported by The Wall Street Journal, citing its sources.

According to the newspaper’s sources, the scheme was supposed to work as follows: Russia and Turkey would agree that Gazprombank, which was not yet under sanctions at that time, would provide a loan of about $9 billion for the construction of the Akkuyu nuclear power plant (Rosatom, which is not subject to sanctions, will participate in the construction of the nuclear power plant). The money was supposed to be deposited in Turkey’s largest state bank, Ziraat Bank, and then sent to Russian companies with accounts in this bank. This loan was supposed to be secretly financed by a Russian bank. According to the WSJ, this scheme served to eliminate the need to bring funds into the United States and withdraw them.

As a result, the Russian side managed to transfer more than $ 5 billion through American banks JPMorgan and Citigroup. In the summer of 2022, Gazprombank transferred $ 3 billion to the NPP’s account at Ziraat Bank. After that, the US Department of Justice contacted JPMorgan, blocked the next $ 2 billion tranche, and the funds were frozen.

In 2024, prosecutors began looking for a way to seize these funds by filing a civil lawsuit, but the White House was concerned that this would worsen relations with Ankara and undermine US cooperation with Turkey on all issues. As a result, the seizure process was stopped by the Biden administration.

According to WSJ sources, after the currency reserves are frozen, Central Bank Governor Elvira Nabiullina and the state corporation will receive direct instructions from the Kremlin in February 2022 to find a way to use these funds. The US also suspects other high-ranking Russian officials and one of the main aides to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, National Intelligence Chief Ibrahim Kalin, of being involved in the scheme.

The Rosatom press service said that all funds allocated for the nuclear power plant were spent on financing the project, payments to contractors, and other social and financial obligations in Turkey. The Bank of Russia, Gazprombank, and Ziraat Bank did not respond to questions about the above scheme. Follow “Zamin” news on “Telegram”