Washington has warned Turkish companies and banks that do business with Russia of sanctions.
Turkey’s three state-owned banks that allowed the Russian Mir payment system to operate will abandon it after stern US warnings, a top Turkish official has announced.
“There are payments underway, but a date has been set” for shutting down the Mir system, the unnamed source told AFP, without disclosing the end date.
Until then, the three banks, HalkBank, Ziraat and Vakifbank will allow Mir card transactions.
Two of Turkey’s largest private banks, Denizbank and Isbank, announced last week that they would stop using the Mir payment system.
On Friday, Uzbekistan announced that it had suspended the Mir bank cards, which are now only used in a handful of countries, including Belarus, for “technical” reasons.
Heavily dependent on Russian gas and oil, Turkey has refused to participate in Western sanctions against Russia following its invasion of Ukraine. Since the beginning of the war, Turkey, a favorite destination for Russian tourists, has welcomed a large volume of Russians.
Turkey had announced that it was expanding the scope of the Mir system after a meeting between Presidents Tayyip Erdogan and Vladimir Putin in early August.
But Washington warned Turkish companies and banks that have transactions with Russia with the application of sanctions.
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