Putin sees no prospects for improving intergovernmental relations with Turkey

It is hard and probably even impossible to come to consensus with the current Turkish leadership, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said at a big news conference on Dec 17.

“I see no prospects for improving our relations at the intergovernmental level, but it is surely possible in the humanitarian level, although there are some problems here as well. We need to impose restrictions both in economic and tourist sectors,” the Russian president says.

According to Putin, actions of the Turkish authorities against the Russian fighter were an act of hostility^ “If it was an accident, they should have taken the phone and explain everything to us. Instead of it, they started hiding behind NATO, but it turned out that NATO did not need it.”

The Russian leader notes that it is still unclear why Turkey did it, while Moscow showed readiness to cooperate with Turkey on sensitive issues: “Did they think that we would flee from there? Of course, we wouldn’t. Russia is not that type of country. If someone wants to lick Americans in some part, I do not know if they did the right thing. I do not know if Americans need this.”