The U.S. administration is weighing three sanctions packages to punish Turkey over its purchases of the Russian S-400 missile-defense system.
According to the sources, the U.S. could impose sanctions as early as July, the soonest Turkey could start receiving components of the S-400 system.
The most severe package under discussion between officials at the National Security Council and the State and Treasury departments "would all but cripple the already troubled Turkish economy," Bloomberg reported citing three people familiar with the matter.
The idea with the most support for now is to target several companies in Turkey’s key defense sector under the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act, or CAATSA, which targets entities doing business with Russia. Such sanctions would effectively sever those companies from the U.S. financial system, making it almost impossible for them to buy American components or sell their products in the U.S.
So far, Ankara been defiant over the sanctions threat because trust in Washington has broken down, Bloomberg writes.
