© Press TVSwissotel Krasnye Kholmy
The Swissotel Krasnye Kholmy, located near the Paveletskaya metro station in the capital Moscow, stopped taking reservations on December 30, 2015. "Right now we are trying to find out from the authorities how the economic sanctions [could] influence our business," said Eva-Maria Panzer, spokeswoman for the Swissotel Hotels & Resorts.
Moscow introduced a package of sanctions against Ankara in late November 2015, after a Turkish F-16 fighter jet shot down a Russian aircraft near Syria's border with Turkey, killing one of the two pilots on board. Ankara claimed the Russian bomber had violated the Turkish airspace, but Moscow denied the allegation.
Russian President Vladimir Putin warned relations between the two countries could suffer "serious consequences" and described the Turkish move as a "stab in the back."Russia's anti-Ankara measures also include a ban on charter flights to Turkey, which started on December 1, 2015, and the suspension of visa-free travel for Turkish nationals from January 1.In addition, Moscow imposed a ban on hiring Turkish nationals and halted the import of many Turkish products.
The sanctions include a list of prohibited activities for Turkish companies in Russia, which involve the tourism sector. On Thursday, Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek said the Russian-imposed sanctions on his nation could cost, as a base case scenario, about $3.1 billion.
Speaking during a Turkish foreign policy conference in Washington DC, Simsek claimed the loss was "insignificant" due to the estimated $700-$800 billion Turkish annual gross domestic product (GDP). "The goods that we sell to Russia are sellable to anywhere else because they apply to other markets and no other country can cover Russian demand in such a quick fashion."So they buy from somewhere else, we sell it to somewhere else," he said.
Last month, Simsek had said Turkey could lose nearly $9 billion as a result of the tensions with its second biggest trade partner Russia. According to Bloomberg, foreign investors withdrew $7.6 billion from assets in 2015, including $1.4 billion in outflows last November. Turkey has the biggest current-account deficit among the Group of 20 nations. The country is highly dependent on external debt which makes it vulnerable to shifts in investor sentiment.
Apparently the Turks are slow learners. History records that they have a pattern of losing wars when pitted against Russia. That they foolishly act as an american lapdog has done them no favors. History records that the Turkish-american effort at regime change in Syria was foiled by the USSR. Is this more of the same?
Clearly, yes. Russian and Serb media suggest a larger hit than 9B, to the Turk economy, closer to 13 billion USD in 2016. It is unfortunate that Turkey blindly follows US imperialist diktats. Most experts suspect that a slow renormalization will proceed. Turkey lacks options. Should Russia withdraw the 12% discount provided on natural gas sales, the Turkish economy will contract dangerously.
If Turk planners had read Moisede Ostrogorski's seminal work of 1902, that gained him recognition as the founder of modern political sociology, perhaps this could have been avoided. The Russian wrote, "Of all races in an advanced stage of civilization, the american is least accessible to long views...always and everywhere in a hurry to get rich, he gives no thought to remote consequences; he sees only present advantages..he does not remember, he does not feel, he lives in a materialist dream."