russia spent billions of dollars to help Erdogan win the presidential election again
russian hackers fake videos and photos discrediting opposition politicians that are distributed on the Internet
Over the past six months, russia has spent billions of dollars to help Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan win the election again, and russian entities have launched campaigns against the Turkish opposition.
Source. This was reported by a source in the Turkish opposition to the Middle East Eye, the Agency reports.
According to the Middle East Eye source, moscow directly supported Erdogan's presidential campaign through russian companies, and russian hackers fake videos and photos distributed on the Internet.
One of these fakes, according to the source, is a video in which opposition leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu is shown together with Murat Karayılan, the leader of the Kurdistan Workers' Party accused of terrorism. Erdogan showed this video at his election rallies.
The source refused to disclose the names of the organizations that, according to him, interfere in Turkish affairs. He explained this by the Turkish opposition's reluctance to organize a high-profile conflict with russia and give the Turkish authorities material that could be used against them.
He also noted that the russians, through intermediaries, informed the opposition that the russian authorities had nothing to do with companies that could influence the elections: "They told us that these are private companies, this is the mafia."
Recently, russia has helped the Turkish authorities with money at least twice, a Middle East Eye source said. "They have been financing Erdogan's election promises in several stages over the past six months for billions of dollars," he said.
We are talking about a 10 billion ruble loan for the construction of the Akkuyu nuclear power plant in Turkey, as well as a $600 million gas deferral agreement, as reported by Reuters. According to the agency, russia may defer payments to Turkey for up to $4 billion in total.
On May 14, Turkey will hold presidential elections in which the incumbent president will face a candidate from the united opposition, Kemal Kilicdaroglu.
On Thursday, May 11, Kilicdaroglu accused the russians of interfering in Turkey's internal affairs: "You are behind the edits, conspiracies, Deep Fake content and recordings that were exposed in this country yesterday," he wrote. The statement was made against the backdrop of a video in which presidential candidate Muharrem Ince is allegedly talking to a sex worker. The politician called the video a fake, but withdrew his candidacy.
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