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Russian bonanza or ‘Russian roulette’ for Turkey?

With Turkey’s agricultural output already hit by drought, a deal to increase agricultural exports to Russia threatens to fuel the country’s unruly inflation.
A Turkish flag decorates a grocer's stand on a street in Istanbul November 10, 2007. Turks throughout the country observed a minute of silence when sirens went off, marking the 69th death anniversary of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, founder of modern Turkey. Ataturk, the first president of Turkey from 1923 and founder of the modern secular state, died on November 10, 1938. He was 57. REUTERS/Fatih Saribas (TURKEY) - RTX6CA
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“There will be major and very quick developments in trade with Russia, but I won't be able to give any details at this moment,” Turkish Economy Minister Nihat Zeybekci told Al-Monitor in a late July interview.

Less than a month after this cryptic statement, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a ban on imports of meat, fish, milk, other dairy products, and fruit and vegetables from the United States, the European Union and Australia in retaliation for sanctions imposed on Russia over the Ukraine crisis. Russia then quickly began talks with Turkey as an alternative supplier of the said goods.

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