Two days ago, the Turkish Foreign Minister, Mevlüt Cavusoglu, announced that from now on, Turkey will deny the passage of warships along the straits between the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, which belong to its territory.
For Russian imperialism, the Dardanelles and the Bospurus are passes on a strategically important route connecting the (potential) war zones of the Mediterranean and the Black Sea. In Syria, Russia has the military base in front of the port city of Tartus as an important location from which the military enforcement of Russia's interests in the Mediterranean is coordinated, which exists in important exchange with the Russian bases in or on the Black Sea. Among other things, forces currently have to be moved from there to the Ukrainian coast on the Black Sea in order to strengthen this flank in the war of aggression against Ukraine.
Turkey is now thwarting this plan by "closing" the straits to warships (Russian submarines in the Bosporus at the feet of Istanbul were indeed a normality in the past). In doing so, they refer to the "Convention of Montreux" of 1936, which has regulated the passage of ships through the straits ever since. Turkish President Erdogan is often said to be close to Russia and, as an "autocrat like Putin", to be on a front against the "liberal values of the Western world". In the course of this false thesis, it is then swept under the table what kind of people he actually mostly hangs out with and on which land the ruling faction of the big bourgeoisie in Turkey has mainly made itself dependent. The main imperialist power in Turkey is still the United States. In addition to the omnipresent interconnections of the national economy with US finance capital, which can be seen if one looks a little more closely at the Turkish economy, the Yankees also have great military influence. As the easternmost member state, Turkey functions as part of the NATO military alliance, created in their interests, in the encirclement of Russia. Therefore, it is no surprise that Russian imperialism should no longer be allowed to pass through the Bospurus, but the will of the imperialist masters who support the (still) present government in Ukraine in their proxy war with Russia, and who have their lackeys sitting at the head of the old Turkish state.