Peskov: the date of the talks between Putin and Erdogan has not yet been determined

The date of the talks between Russian and Turkish Presidents Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdogan has not yet been determined. This was announced by the press secretary of the President of Russia Dmitry Peskov. transmits “RIA News”.

Earlier, Erdogan said he wanted to meet with Putin in August to discuss, among other things, a grain deal and the situation with the transfer of the commanders of the Ukrainian Azov battalion (recognized as terrorist in Russia and banned) to Kiev.

In mid-June, Russian presidential aide Yury Ushakov announced Putin’s visit to Turkey “in the near future”. Then he said that there was no agreement on specific dates, but the Russian president had already received an invitation from Erdogan.

Last time, Putin and Erdogan met on the sidelines of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) in Astana on October 13, 2022. They discussed, among other things, the development of a grain deal and the creation of a gas hub. After that, the leaders of the states conducted only telephone conversations. In particular, on May 29, Putin and Erdogan confirmed by telephone their intention “to continue joint work on the entire current agenda.” The last time they had a telephone conversation was on June 24. Then Putin informed his Turkish counterpart about the situation around an attempted armed rebellion led by the founder of Wagner PMC Yevgeny Prigozhin.

On July 7, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited Istanbul, where he met with Erdogan. Later, the Ukrainian leader announced his return to Ukraine, along with five Azov commanders who ended up in Turkey in the fall of 2022 as a result of an exchange of prisoners of war between Kiev and Moscow. It was originally planned that the Azov commanders would remain in Turkey until the end of the conflict in Ukraine. The Kremlin called the incident a violation of the agreements by Ankara.