Turkey to Restrict Transit of Russian Warships Through Straits

(Bloomberg) -- Turkey has decided to restrict Russian warships from using waterways it controls to transit into the Black Sea due to Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine, according to Turkish officials familiar with the matter.

The officials, who asked not to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter, fleshed out President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's pledge earlier on Monday to “exercise” the authority over the straits granted to Turkey by the 1936 Montreux Convention to prevent an escalation of fighting.

The Turkish straits give Russia's Black Sea fleet entry to the Mediterranean. The Montreux agreement allows Ankara to regulate maritime traffic through the waterways during peace and wartime alike.

So far, there had been no transit requests from the government in Moscow since the measures came into force, the officials said.

Turkey has decided to stop Russian warships seeking to sail into the Black Sea, except for those returning to their original bases after a rotation, they said.

Turkey saw no need to make an explicit announcement on the restrictions after deciding the fighting in Ukraine was an act of war, a key legal requirement. That allowed the Turkish government to implement the Montreux Convention as it sees fit, the officials said.

It was unclear whether the Turkish move will have any significant material impact over the course of the war in Ukraine since several Russian warships had already crossed into the Black Sea before Putin gave his invasion order.

Russia had already repositioned assault vessels from fleets outside the Black Sea before the invasion began, limiting the impact from the restrictions at the Turkish straits, Teneo Intelligence said in an emailed report on Monday.

“Not a single Russian warship has crossed the Bosporus and the Dardanelles straits since the start of the conflict in Ukraine,” it said.

Turkey has sold armed drones to Ukraine in recent years and Erdogan visited Kyiv earlier this month for wide-ranging talks.

But Ankara remains wary of publicly opposing Russia as that could threaten its interests from Syria to Libya and the Caucasus, flashpoints where Moscow is on the opposite side.