Putin may visit Turkey in February: Reports
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Russian President Vladimir Putin may visit Turkey in the second half of February, Turkish media reported on Thursday.
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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Russian President Vladimir Putin
Russian President Vladimir Putin may visit Turkey in the second half of February, Turkish media reported on Thursday.
The date of the visit will be known after the 2022 Winter Olympic Games in Beijing, the A Haber TV channel said.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said last week that Putin's visit may take place after his trip to the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games on Friday. Kremlin Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that he would travel to Turkey as soon as epidemiological conditions permit, according to The Guardian.
This comes as the Turkish President tries to play the role of mediator between Ukraine and Russia amid the rising tensions between the two.
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan will visit Kiev on Thursday to offer himself again in the role of mediator between Ukraine and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
With Turkey’s Nato membership often under challenge, partly due to its decision to buy the Russian-made S-400 air-defense system, Erdogan faces a difficult balancing act in showing continued strong diplomatic support for Ukraine while not damaging his long-term relations with Moscow.
Russia has not yet picked up Erdogan's mediation proposal, and the US is trying to minimize the number of interlocutors with Putin who seems to believe the best way to solve the Ukraine conflict is through direct bilateral talks with the White House, rather than via any third party.
Putin criticized Turkey last year when it sold its Bayraktar TB2 drones to the Ukrainian army. The highly effective weapons could be used against Russian soldiers supporting the Donetsk area in eastern Ukraine. The sale led to an official complaint from the Russian Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov, who accused Turkey of feeding militarist tendencies.
