Putin says Russia ready to restore relations with Turkey

Russian President Vladimir Putin stated that Moscow is ready to normalize relations with Turkey, but the first step should come from Ankara.

During the visit to Greece, Russian leader told that it is still unclear why Turkey downed Russian Su-24 aircraft.

According to him, Moscow wants to restore relations, “We have done everything to bring decades of Russian-Turkish relations to an unprecedented level of partnership and friendship. And this friendship between the Russian and the Turkish people, it actually reached very high levels. We valued it very much. I still don’t understand why this was done,” and he added “We’ve heard explanations from the Turkish authorities, but we have not heard any apologies or signs of their readiness to repair the damage,” Sputnik reports.

“We keep in touch with the representatives of the Turkish side. They know our response. We are waiting for specific steps from their side. No such steps have been made yet,” he noted.

The diplomatic crisis between Russia and Turkey over the downing of Russian warplane on November 24 caused the wide range of problems.

After several harsh speeches, Russian officials decided to implement sanctions on some specific areas. First of all, the government declared to suspend military relations with Turkey. Russian president Vladimir Putin accused Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan on so-called relations between Ankara and terrorist groups in Syria. These developments negatively affected Turkish-Russian relations, and additionally Russia decided to halt visa-free travel for Turks after imposing sanctions on Turkish goods.