Turkish-owned hotel in Moscow ceases operations over bans
A Turkish-owned hotel in Russia has reportedly ceased operation as a result of sanctions imposed by Moscow against Ankara after it shot down a Russian fighter jet in Syrian skies last November.
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.
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