"In my understanding, cutting the financing of the terrorist groups should be the most effective way. We need to do it in a very decisive way. I hope for that kind of cooperation between the East and West within the UN. It will be a necessary step," Kanerva said.
Commenting on recent statements by Russian military authorities that Turkey is involved in illegal oil trade with terrorists, Kanerva stated that he was not familiar with the background and realities behind this information. "But as a representative of OSCE, I should say that cutting financing of IS would be the most constructive way to cooperate and fight terrorism," he said.
Oil revenues contribute the most significant part of the Islamic State (IS, or Daesh in Arab world) budget, along with donations, ransom payments, taxes from the territories under their control, human and drug trafficking. According to the US Department of the Treasury, IS earns between $40 million and $50 million monthly and about $500 million a year from oil sales.
On Wednesday, the head of the Russian General Staff operative command, Lt. Gen. Sergei Rudskoy, said that oil from areas in Syria seized by Daesh, a group outlawed in Russia, was transported to Turkey and shipped to refineries in other countries. Rudskoy added that Russian data was based on reconnaissance from space.
