Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, will meet his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, today on the sidelines of an international energy summit in Istanbul. The newly reconciled strongmen are expected to sign an agreement to build Turkish Stream, a pipeline carrying Russian gas to Turkey across the Black Sea. They are also likely to discuss Syria where, despite being on opposite sides of a proxy war, Russia and Turkey are trying to steer clear of open conflict. Mr Erdogan, whose tanks now patrol a corner of Syria previously occupied by Islamic State, is counting on Russia’s help to prevent Kurdish insurgents from forming an autonomous enclave nearby. In exchange, Russia expects Turkey to cut back its support to anti-regime rebels in what remains of Aleppo, relentlessly bombed by Syrian warplanes. And after five years of insisting on the ouster of Bashar al-Assad, Turkey is reopening channels with his regime. Mr Putin is happy to help.