Russia's importance for Turkey's economy

Moscow has warned Russians against visiting Turkey, saying the threat of terrorism there was no less than in Egypt, where a bomb attack brought down a Russian passenger plane last month. Each year millions of Russian tourists spend their holidays in Turkey's seaside resorts. Some of them like the Kremlin Palace Hotel in Antalya are tailor-made for Russian guests.

Turkish food exports so far have not been affected by Moscow's ban on most Western food imports. In 2014, about 4 percent of Turkish exports, mainly textiles and food, worth $6 billion (5.63 billion euros) went to Russia. In the first three quarters of 2015, however, overall exports to Russia slumped by 40 percent to $2.7 billion (2.53 euros)

Turkey is the second-largest buyer of Russian natural gas after Germany. Ankara is importing 28-30 billion cubic meters (bcm) of its 50 bcm of natural gas needs annually from gas giant Gazprom. Russia also supplies oil and oil products to Turkey.

Turkey together with Egypt is the largest buyer of Russian wheat. It bought 4.1 million tons of Russian wheat in the previous marketing year that ended in June. In addition, Ankara relies strongly on imports of Russian steel and semi-finished metallurgical products.

Turkey commissioned Russia's state-owned Rosatom in 2013 to build four 1,200-megawatt nuclear reactors in a project worth $20 billion (18.79 billion euros). Russia and Turkey also have teamed up for the TurkStream pipeline Project, an alternative to Russia's South Stream pipeline to transport gas to Europe without crossing Ukraine. tko/hg (Reuters)