Turkey has rightly received a lot of praise for bringing about the grain agreement between Russia and Ukraine.

Since then, freighters with Ukrainian grain have been crossing the Bosphorus again, which has prevented famine in many countries.

However, not only altruistic motives hide behind the welcome commitment of the Turkish leadership.

Because the more the world praises Turkey, the more Ankara dares to undermine the sanctions that more than thirty countries have imposed on Russia.

Turkey was not involved in the sanctions decision and is the only NATO member country not to join them.

In concrete terms, no active violation of the sanctions can (yet) be proven.

Economically, however, Turkish President Erdogan is accommodating his Russian counterpart Putin to an extent that could enable the regime to stabilize economically, albeit at a low level.

The sanctions, on the other hand, are intended to weaken Russia so that the Kremlin can no longer pursue its war of aggression.

Erdogan is acting out of necessity

Two weeks after the grain deal, the presidents of both countries signed a memorandum of understanding in Sochi that has not been made public.

The Turkish Presidential Office has indicated that it will not publish the text either.

From Turkish government circles it is said that the declaration only concerns the expansion of existing trade and transport relations.

Erdogan refused to include the banks and the financial market, as Putin wanted.

However, even removing trade barriers is the opposite of what the sanctions are intended to aim for.

Erdogan is acting out of necessity.

The most important reason for his opportunistic behavior is that the country urgently needs the capital flowing out of Russia and looking for a safe haven because of the self-inflicted economic crisis.

Billions of dollars are parked in real estate in Istanbul and Antalya.

According to official figures, the number of companies run by Russian citizens has multiplied in just a few months.

In return, Turkish business delegations are looking in Russia for the gaps left by Western companies when they withdraw.

Even if their products are not on the sanctions list, they help the Russian economy.

This also applies to the goods that are legally imported from the EU to Turkey, where they change hands to be transported to Russia via the Black Sea or by truck through Georgia.

In addition, thanks to favorable conditions, Turkey is buying twice as much Russian oil as before.

In addition to the trade in goods, tourism provides further visual evidence of Turkey's evasion of sanctions.

While the EU, the USA and Canada have closed their airspace to Russian aircraft and suspended all flights to Russia, Turkey is expanding its flight connections with Russia.

In Turkey, Russian vacationers can use their “Mir” credit card, which undermines the sanctioned countries in payment transactions.

An uncomfortable neighbor

The US government has now let Turkey know that it can impose secondary sanctions on Turkish banks and companies for their ties with Russia.

According to a letter from Washington, the Turkish banks would then have to decide whether they wanted to do business with Russian or American financial institutions.

Similarly, the Europeans could ask the Turkish airlines whether they prefer the western market or the Russian one.

Turkey's opportunistic economic behavior towards Russia is continued in the lack of solidarity with NATO, where Ankara reserves the right to veto the northern expansion.

Without the security that NATO offers, Erdogan would have to bear the risks of his seesaw policy alone – drones to Ukraine on the one hand, and indirect economic aid to Russia on the other.

Turkey would face Russia alone without NATO backing.

However, Russia, which is intent on expansion, is an uncomfortable neighbor on two sides: on the Black Sea in the north and through the border with Syria also in the south.

Despite the grain deal, frustration with Turkey is growing in the West.

Sochi's secrecy has further fueled suspicion.

Ankara must be careful not to take its special role to such an extreme that the West realigns its policy towards Turkey.