Russia: do not go to Turkey, check Turkish goods

The Russian Foreign Ministry in a special statement on Thursday recommended that the Russians, who are in Turkey with personal goals, leave the country. In addition, the agency offered to refrain from visiting the Republic of Turkey.

Following this, the recommendation of the Rostourism appeared to suspend sales of tours in the Turkish direction, which is why the leading Russian tour operators have already imposed restrictions, and some have completely canceled the tourist vouchers sold earlier.

“Formally, this is a recommendation, but our recommendations are equated to a ban,” explained the spokesman for the Russian Union of Travel Industry Irina Tyurina, according to which the sold tours now simply cannot be implemented.

The basis for such recommendations of the Russian Foreign Ministry calls the potential "terrorist threats" in Turkey. According to Minister Sergey Lavrov, a critical mass of terrorist manifestations are accumulating in Turkey, of which "not less than in Egypt."

However, the sharp deterioration in Russian-Turkish relations is associated primarily with the incident that occurred on Tuesday at the border of Turkey and Syria. Russian bomber Su-24 was shot down by a Turkish fighter F-16patrolling the border.

According to the Turkish side, this happened after crossing the border by a Russian plane, which participated in the military operation in Syria, and repeated warnings. The Russian side claims that the Turkish fighter’s attempts to contact or establish visual contact with the Russian crew were not recorded.

On Thursday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that official Ankara would not apologize for the downed bomber, and Russian leader Vladimir Putin expressed outrage at the fact that the top political leadership of Turkey had not come forward either with apologies or with proposals for compensation for harm and damage. .

According to Putin, it seems that the Turkish authorities are deliberately driving Russian-Turkish relations into a dead end. Meanwhile, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev ordered the government to work out a set of response measures in the economic and humanitarian spheres.

It is reported that the restrictions will apply to investment projects with Turkey, which can be completely collapsed or temporarily frozen. Among them are projects "Turkish Stream" and Akkuyu nuclear power plant.

In addition, Russia has strengthened control over the supply of agricultural products and food from Turkey. The reason for this, as stated in the Ministry of Agriculture of Russia, was a violation by Turkish manufacturers of Russian product quality standards.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture, which appeared right now, on average 15% of Turkish products do not meet the criteria. In particular, in Turkish vegetables and fruits, the department found a significant excess of the maximum allowable levels of pesticides, nitrates and nitrites.

Turkey, according to the Interfax news agency, accounts for 20% of all vegetable supplies to Russia. However, according to the Minister of Agriculture and one of the main ideologists of Russian import substitution Alexander Tkachev, the supply of vegetables and fruits from Turkey can be easily replaced with similar products from other countries.

Meanwhile, Rospotrebnadzor expressed dissatisfaction with Turkish clothing, including children's clothing, and household chemicals. According to the ministry, there have been cases of non-compliance with the requirements of products of the Turkish light industry, including those belonging to the high-risk group.

As stated in Rospotrebnadzor, enhanced control over food products from Turkey is maintained throughout the entire 2015 year, but it was publicly reported against the background of a political and diplomatic crisis between countries.

A spokesman for the Russian president, Dmitry Peskov, said that the Kremlin has not yet intended to impose an embargo on Turkish products or any other sanctions against Turkey.

At the same time, according to the BBC, Turkish citizens have problems entering Russia. The Turkish Embassy in Moscow reports that Turkish citizens are not allowed to enter Russia without giving reasons. According to RBC, about 30 Turkish citizens have already been sent back from Russia to Turkey.

Two months ago, as reported by the Forum, the President of Turkey has already warned Russia against further invasions in its airspace after two incidents involving Russian combat aircraft.