The Turkey-Russia S-400 deal was full of big politics until a local cook added a bit of spice and pastry to it, with a gorgeous spinach pie that he shipped to Vladimir Putin to thank him for greenlighting the delivery.

Hasan Acar, a professional cook in the city of Bursa, did his utmost to treat Russia the way it treated Turkey. Shortly after news of the S-400s arriving on Turkish soil broke, he rushed to fire up his stove and bake the borek – a traditional Turkish pastry packed with spinach and other fillings.

Ruptly footage shows Acar meticulously preparing the thin, flaky dough which he juggled several times. Filled with spinach and oiled up, the borek was then rolled into a cigar-shaped pipe and put in the oven.

Acar said the spinach borek was to “express our gratitude” to President Vladimir Putin who sealed the S-400 deal with his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Once it was ready, the cook and his team carefully packaged the pie before handing it over to a shipping company in charge of getting the gift right to Putin’s doorstep. The Russian president doesn’t have to worry about its shelf life, Acar said, as it “can endure long distances and it has benefits for the health.”

“I know from my previous experiences that this borek will go up to ten days,” he added.

But what if it fails to reach Putin in time? If it does, the cook will make the borek once again at his restaurant – provided that Putin comes to visit the place.

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The story comes days after the first batches of S-400s were airlifted to Turkey by the Russian Air Force, with Ankara defying US pressure to ditch the deal. The Turkish military will receive four squadrons of the air defense systems in the coming years.

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