President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday lifted travel restrictions to Turkey and ordered trade normalized after he mended ties with counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan in their first call since Ankara downed a Russian jet.
In the wake of the incident last November Moscow slapped a range of sanctions on Ankara, including an embargo on some Turkish food products, as well as a ban on charter flights and sales of package tours to the country and the reintroduction of visas for Turkish visitors.
“I want to start with the question of tourism... we are lifting the administrative restrictions in this area,” Putin told government ministers in televised comments. “I ask that the Russian government begins the process of normalizing general trade and economic ties with Turkey,” he said.
The breakthrough with Russia was forged in a phone call by Putin to Erdogan after the Turkish strongman on Monday sent a letter to the Kremlin leader that Moscow said contained an apology.
The Turkish presidency said in a statement that Erdogan and Putin “highlighted the importance of the normalization of bilateral relations between Turkey and Russia.”
Erdogan is expected to meet with Putin in September on the sidelines of the forthcoming G20 summit in China for their first face-to-face talks since the start of the diplomatic row, a Turkish official told AFP on Wednesday speaking on condition of anonymity.
The downing of the Russian warplane in Syria slammed the brakes on burgeoning relations between Russia and Turkey and sparked a bitter war of words between the leaders.
Putin called it a “stab in the back” and demanded an apology from Erdogan, who he also accused of doing illegal oil trade with Daesh.

Source: Arab News