Tomato ban reveals lingering problems between Russia, Turkey
Russia is continuing its tomato ban, but its problems with Turkey are rooted elsewhere.
Ankara and Moscow have made impressive progress recently on some tricky diplomatic issues. Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan met May 3 in the Russian resort of Sochi to discuss energy, weapons, tariffs, sanctions and the complexities of the Syrian civil war — even agreeing to set up de-escalation zones there.
But they can't seem to find their way past the "tomato crisis." Clearly, the symbolic tomato — while important — isn't really the problem.
The countries' relations have been strained since Turkey shot down a Russian millitary jet in November 2015. Sanctions ensued, on both sides. Most recently, Turkey’s Ministry of Agriculture in March imposed a 130% tariff on Russian wheat and other grains, and sanctions on rice, peas and sunflower oil from Russia. In 2016, Turkey bought $720 million worth of sunflower oil, $76 million of corn and $490 million of wheat from Russia.
It's interesting that Russian Agriculture Minister Alexander Tkachev reacted to the Turkish sanctions using the same language Putin used to describe the jet incident — the event that marked the start of the trade war: that Turkey had stabbed Russia in the back. The agriculture minister claimed Russian farmers would lose $1.3 billion to $1.5 billion annually. After the Sochi meeting, Turkey agreed to lift the sanctions.
