The Greek language internet site News Break, on August 11, 2022 carried the following news item that describes an agreement reached between Moscow and Ankara to allow Türkiye to pay rubles for a certain portion of Russian natural gas imports. The article also mentions the two countries’ plan to significantly increase bilateral trade turnover.

The article follows [translation | Lahbrais T. O’Coileain]:

The Ruble Will Flow Abundantly

Russia and Türkiye have closed a new agreement to change some payments for Russian natural gas into rubles, as part of the deepening of trade ties between the two countries, the Turkish Ministry of Energy reported today.

The movement to avoid payments in U.S. dollars is of mutual benefit for the two countries. Russia called the currency “toxic,” as the West’s sanctions make conducting transactions difficult. It also helps Türkiye to protect its declining inventories in hard currency.

Last week Turkish president Tayyip Erdoğan confirmed that Ankara would begin to pay for some imports of natural gas from Russia in rubles, after several hours of discussions with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Sochi.

The two countries also signed a road map for economic cooperation which foresees increasing bilateral trade turnover to 100 billion dollars annually.

Earlier this month, Putin said that the countries of the EU should be grateful to Türkiye for the assurance of the reliable supply of Russian natural gas to the bloc via the TurkStream pipeline.