Russia is expelling Turkish students
Relations between Turkey and Russia have been strained since Turkey shot down a Russian jet in November. The tensions are also being felt by Turkish students in Russia, who are facing rising hostility. They are even being expelled from their universities and forced out of the country.
Beginning of December, an engineering university in Russia has already expelled a number of its Turkish students.
The association of Turkish students in Russia has been receiving reports of their compatriots being expelled from universities in the Russian cities of Voronezh and Saratov
Before the expulsions, police and Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) searched the dorm rooms of Turkish students at Obninsk Institute for Nuclear Power Engineering — a branch of Moscow-based National Research Nuclear University, or MEPhI — looking for drugs and accusing the students of sympathising with “terrorists”.
Russian Education Minister Dmitri Livanov said the Turkish students were expelled from MEPhI over absenteeism, for missing classes, adding that the issue has nothing with political dynamics.
There are restrictions now on Turkish citizens working for companies registered in Russia.
And Russia has suspended work on TurkStream – a new Black Sea pipeline that was to boost Russian gas exports to Turkey.
But Russian Economy Minister Alexei Ulyukayev said on December 29 that Turkey remains an important trading partner for Russia, and Moscow aims to minimise problems for Turkish and Russian businesses caused by sanctions.
His comments, playing down the impact of recent economic sanctions introduced as retaliation for Turkey’s shooting down of a Russian jet, suggest that Russia is eager to prevent sanctions harming Russia’s own economy.
Relations between Moscow and Ankara soured in November 2015, after a Turkish warplane shot down a Russian jet bomber near the Syrian-Turkish border. Russia denied it had violated Turkish air space.
Following the incident, Russia introduced economic sanctions against Turkey. These included banning the import of Turkish fruit and vegetables, bird meat and salt, and the sale of charter flights and tourist visits to Turkey, from January 1.
Ulyukayev’s comments come a day after President Vladimir Putin signed a decree that widened the sanctions to include companies controlled by Turkish citizens even if the companies did not fall under Turkish jurisdiction.
At the same time Putin also ordered his government to draw up a list of exceptions to the sanctions, giving Russia leeway to continue doing business with Turkish companies if it thinks Russia would benefit.
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