SOURCE: KREMLIN.RU

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Following talks with Putin, Erdogan said that Turkish troops found themselves in danger, saying his country will “do everything to ensure tranquility in Idlib” if necessary. But this is nothing more than just a bunch of empty words because this was Putin who succeeded in gaining an advantage over his Turkish counterpart. When addressing his guest’s complaints, he argued that this would change nothing as for a military offensive carried out by Russian-backed Syrian government forces, adding that “the terrorists will continue shelling Syrian government troop positions and trying to attack Russian military facilities.” Putin made it clear than the ceasefire deal is no longer in force when saying that “we are convinced that the deescalation zone should not serve as a shelter for militants.”

Turkish authorities found themselves in a tough position at their request. No details were provided whether Turkish-Russian talks on purchasing S-400s were accompanied by Moscow’s promises or it was rather Turkey that filled in the blanks, believing that this would make Putin reduce or withdraw its support for al-Assad’s offensive against Turkish-backed Idlib rebels. The fact is that Erdogan is incapable of doing much, and Putin seeks to seize the opportunity to bind a NATO member with its military contracts. During Erdogan’s visit to Moscow, Putin said that another batch of S-400 missiles systems had been dispatched to Turkey. Putin said he had raised the issue of Russian-Turkish bilateral cooperation in the domain of aviation industry, with these two discussing the deliveries of Russian-made Sukhoi Su-35 fighter jets to Turkey. Earlier Washington had suspended its F-35 military deal after Ankara purchased S-400 systems from Russia. Also, Ankara and Moscow are reported to cooperate closely to develop the Russian fifth-generation multi-role Su-57 warplane. At a joint press conference with his Turkish peer, Putin said that Russia would start sending its gas to Turkey through the first stretch of the Turkish Stream energy pipeline along the Black Sea seabed by late 2019.