Trump admin to impose sanctions on Turkey for buying Russian S-400 air defense systems
The administration of US President Donald Trump has reportedly decided to slap sanctions on Turkey over its acquisition of the Russian S-400 missile defense system.
According to a report by Bloomberg on Sunday, Washington was planning to announce economic sanctions against Ankara at the end of next week, pending US President Donald Trump’s final confirmation.
The report said US officials were going to take the punitive measures under the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA), after the NATO ally refused to back down from the deal with Russia, which is already under military sanctions by the US.
The sanctions, as Bloomberg reported, were one of three options the US State and Defense Departments along with the National Security Council had devised to inflict “varying degrees of pain” on Ankara, which received the first batch of S-400 systems on Friday.
The US Congress passed the CAATSA against Russia in August 2017 over allegations of interfering in the 2016 US presidential election.
The CAATSA legislation states that the American head of state shall impose sanctions on countries and companies that engage in contracts to purchase weaponry from Russia.
Such sanctions would effectively sever Turkish firms from the US financial system, making it almost impossible for them to buy American components or sell their products in the US.
According to Washington officials, Trump will announce the sanctions after Monday’s anniversary of the 2016 coup attempt against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Washington has repeatedly warned Ankara that, besides facing economic punishments, it would risk being ejected from the manufacturing program of F-35 stealth fighter jets if it completes the deal.
The S-400, which the US claims is incompatible with NATO's air defenses and the Lockheed Martin Corp’s F-35 aircraft, is an advanced Russian missile system designed to detect, track, and destroy planes, drones, or missiles as far as 400 kilometers away. It has previously been sold only to China and India.
Ankara is striving to boost its air defense, particularly after Washington decided in 2015 to withdraw its Patriot surface-to-air missile system from Turkish soil.
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