Russia authorizes several companies to employ Turkish nationals

Nerdun Hacıoğlu - MOSCOW

Russia's Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev chairs a government meeting in Moscow, Russia, December 24, 2015. REUTERS/Alexander Astafyev/Sputnik/Pool

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has signed a decree with a list of companies that will be permitted to employ Turkish nationals after Jan. 1, 2016, as part of a new sanction package against Turkey. 

“In our meetings with our ministries and local administrations, we wanted them to prepare and present which companies should be excluded from the sanctions’ list. At the end, a company list has been finalized. We have decided that a total of 53 construction companies can continue to hire Turkish nationals after Jan. 1, 2016,” he said. 

The names of these Turkish companies were not announced, but they were said to have operations in 12 regions, including Moscow, St. Petersburg and Crimea. 

The participation of Turkish companies in Russia’s construction business will be minimized starting from early 2016, Construction, Housing and Utilities Minister Mikhail Men said in an interview aired by the Rossiya-24 TV news channel on Dec. 21.

“In any case no one will root out those big projects where [Turkish] companies are involved. Of course, they’ll be finished. But starting from [the beginning] of next year, some certain decisions will be made in order to minimize those companies’ entrance to new projects,” he was quoted as saying by TASS News Agency.