Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin agreed to step up economic cooperation at a summit in the Black Sea resort of Sochi earlier this month.
Turkey’s business community confronted growing US pressure on Wednesday to break off its growing ties with Russia or face potentially crippling sanctions linked to the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine.
Washington is becoming increasingly alarmed that the Russian government and businesses are using Turkey to evade Western financial and trade restrictions imposed in response to the six-month-old war.