the same way as Bulgaria.
The original deal allowed Rosatom and its Turkish partner to build factories, warehouses, commercial
enterprises, administrative buildings and other buildings at the site. But construction kept being stalled,
until Ankara came back with new terms. Under the amended deal, Rosatom is fully in charge of the Akkuyu
power plant project and can bring in any staff they want and even demand more land.
Rosatom can now build sea ports and terminals. It can conduct shipping, and offer port services, including
storage, loading, unloading, forwarding, and transporting of goods. Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov
told the daily Kommersant last year that Rosatom secured takes breaks on Akkuyu for 90 years.
“It seems that the Russian government, which already signed a fantastic deal for Rosatom, is also getting a
port, owned, operated and controlled by Russia, and staffed by Russians,” said Yoruk Isik, a Russian foreign
policy specialist in Istanbul. “Given the location of Akkuyu, these tiny changes might offer a very strategic
logistics base for [the Russian military’s] global and regional operations or whatever other way Russian
government will see it serves its interest,” he said.
It was the ongoing war in Syria and the 2016 coup attempt in Turkey, that gave the Kremlin its
opportunities in Turkey.
Millions of Syrian refugees already live in Turkey, driven there by waves of Russian-backed military
campaigns that target civilian populations. Russia controls the spigot of destabilising Syrian refugees
flowing into Turkey, and Ankara knows it. Putin was also among the first foreign dignitaries in Ankara after
a failed 2016 coup which many Turks believe was supported or at least tacitly approved of by the west.
Like a spymaster recruiting a disgraced rival sobbing in the pub, the former KGB officer found Erdogan at
his most vulnerable and offered him a helping hand. “The Russians know how the Turkish mind works,”
said Isik.