Russia rejects Erdoğan’s attempt to play peacemaker in Ukraine war

But Putin appears to be cool to Erdoğan’s advances.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told local media it was “impossible” for the Turkish president to play the role of peacemaker.

Peskov did not elaborate on the reasons, but there are new cracks in relations between Turkey and Russia, while Erdoğan must navigate a years-long economic crisis and a new political landscape at home after his party lost local elections earlier this year.

Putin criticized Turkey’s rapprochement with the West

Although Turkey is a NATO member, it has balanced its relations with Russia, Ukraine and the West throughout the war, while recognizing Ukraine’s territorial sovereignty.

“One of the biggest annoyances for the Kremlin is Ankara’s attitude to the war in Ukraine. Although Turkish statements in support of Ukraine’s territorial integrity have never pleased Moscow, they have not provoked any backlash,” Ruslan Suleymanov, a research fellow at ADA University in Azerbaijan, wrote on Wednesday.

But Erdoğan and Putin also have a personal relationship, and both describe each other as “dear friends.” Erdoğan has even said that he trusts Russia as much as he trusts the West.

However, “the special personal partnership between Putin and Erdoğan is deteriorating rapidly,” Suleymanov wrote in his article for the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center.

Just last month, Putin publicly criticized Turkey, calling for a partnership between a Turkish arms company and Ukraine.

“I would like to point out that Turkey is cooperating with Ukraine in some areas,” Putin said at a meeting with international news agencies. He then claimed that Ukrainian drones were attacking gas pipelines that supply Turkey.

He also cast a shadow over Ankara’s economic turn to the West, saying: “It seems to me that the Turkish government’s economic bloc has shifted its focus to taking loans, attracting investments and receiving grants from Western financial institutions.”

He added the warning: “If this is coupled with restrictions on Turkey’s trade and economic relations with Russia, the Turkish economy will lose more than it gains.”

In 2022, a Russian state-owned company transferred $20 billion to a subsidiary to build a key nuclear power plant in Turkey. A Turkish official told Bloomberg it was a goodwill gesture from Putin for Erdoğan’s brokering of a deal to export profits from Ukraine. In 2023, Russia agreed to defer Turkish payments for $600 million worth of natural gas exports.

“The Kremlin obviously expected Erdoğan to return the favor after his re-election. Instead, given the difficult economic conditions at home, the Turkish president has taken a much more pro-Western course than Moscow expected,” Suleymanov wrote.

Other issues hindering Turkey-Russia relations include an F16 aircraft deal with the US and the decline in bilateral trade due to secondary US sanctions.

Turkey also supported Sweden’s bid to join NATO and attended a Ukraine peace summit in Switzerland last month, while Russia did not attend, calling it “absurd.”

Ankara and Moscow still maintain good relations, but Putin has repeatedly postponed his trip to Turkey, which was planned for February. This is a sign that relations between the two countries are “deteriorating dramatically,” wrote Suleymanov, who believes that this time the rift between the two countries will be serious and long-lasting.