JPMorgan has approximately two billion US dollars in frozen funds, according to the Wall Street Journal, citing sources familiar with the situation. The funds, initially intended for the construction of the first Turkish nuclear power plant, Akkuyu, were to be provided by the Russian state-owned energy company Rosatom, the report states.
According to the US authorities, Russia and Turkey had agreed that the Russian Gazprombank, which was not yet sanctioned at the time, would provide a credit of around nine billion US dollars for the construction of the nuclear power plant. The funds on the accounts could flow to Russian companies that have accounts at the Ziraat Bank, the news agency claimed.
In the summer of 2022, Gazprombank, according to the US side, transferred three billion US dollars to the AKW accounts at the Ziraat Bank through Citigroup and a little more than two billion US dollars through JPMorgan. The next transfer of two billion US dollars through JPMorgan was frozen by the US Justice Department.
According to the Journal, the US Justice Department had initially hoped to seize the funds. However, the amounts were blocked before the departure of the Biden administration to avoid angering Turkey. Officials feared that a lawsuit against Turkey could undermine cooperation with it in all areas, from prisoner exchanges and counter-terrorism to efforts to stabilize Syria and end the Gaza Strip war, the WSJ reported.
A Trump administration official said the government would continue to “review and take action against those who try to circumvent” its sanctions regulations.
A Rosatom spokesperson told the news agency that all funds prepared for the construction of the Turkish nuclear power plant were used for the project’s financing, payment of contractors and other social and financial obligations in Turkey. The spokesperson said, “We expect the matter to be clarified regarding the funds that were wrongly frozen under the influence of third parties.”
Moscow views the Western sanctions as illegal. The Western calculation that Russia would be dealt a devastating blow, from which it would not recover, has not come to pass, as the world needs Russia, President Vladimir Putin stated.