Russia, Turkey mending ties, though not as quickly as Turkey wants - Putin

HANGZHOU /China/, September 5./TASS/. Russia and Turkey are gradually mending relations, though not as quickly as the Turkish side would want, President Vladimir Putin has said. "As for restoration of our bilateral ties, work proceeds, goes as planned, but not as quickly as our Turkish partners would want this," he told a news conference after a G20 summit. "Maybe we, for our part, would also want to do it quicker. When we are breaking something, it always happens quickly, but it is always more difficult to restore things, this requires certain procedures connected with decisions of the government, with activity of our phytosanitary agencies," Putin explained. He said "work progresses, and most important is that we have created a basis for restoring full-format cooperation," he said. "This basis is an appeal made by the Turkish leadership with apologies for the tragic events involving our aircraft, with the death of our pilot," the Russian leader said. Relations between Moscow and Ankara soured after an F-16 fighter jet from the Turkish Air Force shot down a Russian Su-24M bomber on November 24, 2015, which was on an anti-terror mission over Syria. On August 9, Russian and Turkish presidents, Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdogan held their first talks, resetting relations after an 8-month freeze. Read more