Sochi, Russia. Putting aside past complications, Russian leader Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Erdogan have come to terms and ended most all sanctions between the two nations.
The Russian Federation and Turkey have agreed to lift all remaining trade restrictions imposed in the aftermath of Ankara’s shoot down of a Russian warplane in 2015, President Putin said yesterday.
“You asked when we can speak about the lifting of the restrictions that emerged some time ago. We can speak of that today,” Putin said at a news conference alongside his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Foreign relations between Moscow and Ankara hit rock bottom after Turkey’s shooting down of a Russian warplane over the Syrian border in November of 2015.
Following the aircraft’s loss and public execution of it’s pilot, Moscow slapped a range of sanctions on Ankara, including an embargo on some Turkish food products, as well as a ban on charter flights and sales of package tours to the country and the reintroduction of visas for Turkish visitors to Russia.
Putin said Wednesday that Russia’s embargo on the import of tomatoes from Turkey and its visa restrictions on Turkish nationals will remain in place for the time being but that, “Now we can say with certainty that the recovery period in Russo-Turkish relations is over,” the Kremlin strongman said. “We are returning to a normal cooperation partnership.”