By Victoria Panfilova, a columnist of Nezavisimaya Gazeta, exclusively for Vestnik Kavkaza
The status of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to Turkey was changed from “official” to “state” a day before the visit began. His previous state visit was made to Armenia. The topics Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan wanted to discuss with Vladimir Putin were complicated, extensive and of extreme importance to Ankara and Moscow.
At the official ceremony, the Russian leader laid flowers at the mausoleum of the founder of the Turkish state Kemal Ataturk, then went to the new presidential residence, becoming the first such high-ranking guest there.
Experts had different scenarios of their negotiations, bearing in mind the leaders’ emotional telephone conversation about Syria and some theses of Putin’s interview with Anadolu yesterday. Experts assumed that the presidents would skip the Syrian problem, considering the contrary approaches to Bashar al-Assad’s regime.
The same concerns the issue of the Crimean Tatars, although their leader Mustafa Jemilev visited Ankara long before Putin. The Crimean Tatar topic, experts say, is compensated for by the Kurdish one, which Moscow considers to be Ankara’s internal affair. The expert reminded that Turkey was the second-largest consumer of Russian gas and the largest trading partner of Russia.
According to the press conference after the presidential talks, Russia wants to fill the holes created by Western sanctions with Turkish products. Turkey has been distancing itself from sanction wars and demonstrating readiness to keep with a special line in relations with Russia, it wants to increase exports of meat and dairy products and seafood that the Russian market needs.
Turkey is interested in increasing gas imports via the Blue Stream pipeline under the Black Sea. Gas supplies in the autumn and winter periods become especially topical, some districts increase gas consumption over 22 times higher than in the summer period. The Turkish side expects to get discounts for Russian gas.
Russia offers to increase gas supplies from 16 to 19 billion cubic meters a year and lower its price for Turkish consumers, Vladimir Putin said personally. The governments of both countries had meetings in Ankara and will most likely settle all the technical issues.
Vladimir Putin declared that Russia has frozen its participation in the South Stream. The gas pipeline was being constructed to supply Europe with gas through southern countries. The opposition of some countries and the reluctance of others made implementation of the project extremely complicated, the Russian leader admitted. Putin called ending the pipeline in Bulgaria absurd.
Turkey has been planning to become a large gas hub, an irreplaceable link to supply Europe with gas, making extra economic dividends and gaining more political weight in solving problems with the West. Both Ankara and Moscow have common energy goals, Russia has not given up on being the dominant energy supplier of Europe. Vladimir Putin said that Russia will exploit the Blue Stream pipeline, extend it and build another gas pipeline to Turkey.
Besides pipeline discussions, the sides considered cooperation in the sectors of nuclear energy, communications and tourism, but the topics “got lost” against the background of the Russian-Turkish plan to “conquer” Europe with gas.
Killing the South Stream in Ankara, Putin declared a new projectBy Victoria Panfilova, a columnist of Nezavisimaya Gazeta, exclusively for Vestnik KavkazaThe status of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to Turkey was changed from “official” to “state” a day before the visit began. His previous state visit was made to Armenia. The topics Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan wanted to discuss with Vladimir Putin were complicated, extensive and of extreme importance to Ankara and Moscow.At the official ceremony, the Russian leader laid flowers at the mausoleum of the founder of the Turkish state Kemal Ataturk, then went to the new presidential residence, becoming the first such high-ranking guest there.Experts had different scenarios of their negotiations, bearing in mind the leaders’ emotional telephone conversation about Syria and some theses of Putin’s interview with Anadolu yesterday. Experts assumed that the presidents would skip the Syrian problem, considering the contrary approaches to Bashar al-Assad’s regime.The same concerns the issue of the Crimean Tatars, although their leader Mustafa Jemilev visited Ankara long before Putin. The Crimean Tatar topic, experts say, is compensated for by the Kurdish one, which Moscow considers to be Ankara’s internal affair. The expert reminded that Turkey was the second-largest consumer of Russian gas and the largest trading partner of Russia.According to the press conference after the presidential talks, Russia wants to fill the holes created by Western sanctions with Turkish products. Turkey has been distancing itself from sanction wars and demonstrating readiness to keep with a special line in relations with Russia, it wants to increase exports of meat and dairy products and seafood that the Russian market needs.Turkey is interested in increasing gas imports via the Blue Stream pipeline under the Black Sea. Gas supplies in the autumn and winter periods become especially topical, some districts increase gas consumption over 22 times higher than in the summer period. The Turkish side expects to get discounts for Russian gas.Russia offers to increase gas supplies from 16 to 19 billion cubic meters a year and lower its price for Turkish consumers, Vladimir Putin said personally. The governments of both countries had meetings in Ankara and will most likely settle all the technical issues.Vladimir Putin declared that Russia has frozen its participation in the South Stream. The gas pipeline was being constructed to supply Europe with gas through southern countries. The opposition of some countries and the reluctance of others made implementation of the project extremely complicated, the Russian leader admitted. Putin called ending the pipeline in Bulgaria absurd.Turkey has been planning to become a large gas hub, an irreplaceable link to supply Europe with gas, making extra economic dividends and gaining more political weight in solving problems with the West. Both Ankara and Moscow have common energy goals, Russia has not given up on being the dominant energy supplier of Europe. Vladimir Putin said that Russia will exploit the Blue Stream pipeline, extend it and build another gas pipeline to Turkey.Besides pipeline discussions, the sides considered cooperation in the sectors of nuclear energy, communications and tourism, but the topics “got lost” against the background of the Russian-Turkish plan to “conquer” Europe with g
