Erdogan Demanded To Reduce Price Of Russian Gas By 25%

He intends to voice his demand at the talks with the President of the Russian Federation.

Turkey, which has become the last “window to Europe” for Russians and one of the main hubs for deliveries of goods to Russia in circumvention of sanctions, is demanding reciprocal concessions from the Kremlin.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan intends to seek a 25% reduction in the price of Russian gas, Bloomberg reports, citing sources in the Turkish presidential administration.

Erdogan intends to voice his proposal at the talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday. The meeting will be the third in the last three months, and will be held within the framework of the SCO summit in Samarkand.

After cutting off supplies to European countries, Turkey became Gazprom's largest customer and a key hub for the transit of Russian gas to southern Europe. But the gas bill from Russia, which reaches $50 billion a year, is beyond the reach of the fragile Turkish economy, which lives with a trade and balance of payments deficit and is loaded with $451 billion in external debt.

According to Bloomberg sources, Erdogan intends to seek payment for gas supplies in Turkish lira instead of traditional “hard” currencies. This will help the economy not to spend scarce dollars and euros and reduce the “hole” in the foreign exchange balance, which, according to the forecast of the Turkish Central Bank, could amount to $47 billion by the end of the year (current account deficit).

At the latest talks with Putin in Sochi on August 5, Erdogan proposed to defer payments to Gazprom altogether, sources familiar with the situation told The Middle East Eye. Following the results of the summit, Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak announced that an agreement had been reached to partially convert payments into rubles. But this is not enough for Erdogan: inflation in Turkey exceeds 80%, and in just 9 months the country will hold presidential elections, in which the 68-year-old head of state plans to be re-elected for a third consecutive term.

Erdogan has enough opportunities to put pressure on Putin: Western countries insist that Turkey stop accepting Mir cards, threatening local banks with sanctions. And besides, Russia is looking for Turkey's assistance in Syria, from where it is forced to withdraw troops to be transferred to the Ukrainian front.

After the Sochi talks between Putin and Erdogan back in August, Turkey received $ 5 billion from Russia — the funds came in the form of a loan for the construction of the Akkuyu nuclear power plant, and replenished the depleted reserves of the Turkish Central Bank.