Europe | Business as usual

Why Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdogan need each other

Turkey’s president is managing to look both east and west

Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan shake hands during a news conference after their talks in the Kremlin, in Moscow, Russia, Thursday, March 5, 2020. Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, say they have reached agreements that could end fighting in northwestern Syria. (AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin, Pool)

Oct 12th 2022|ISTANBUL

IT WAS a lonely birthday for Vladimir Putin. Few important world leaders bothered to call or post greeting cards, though the president of Belarus did send him a tractor. But at least one man did not disappoint. On October 7th Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who continues to refer to Mr Putin as a “dear friend”, congratulated him on turning 70. Mr Putin for his part thanked the Turkish leader for his attempts to mediate between Russia and Ukraine. The pair were due to meet in Kazakhstan on October 13th, only two days after a murderous Russian drone and missile barrage in Ukraine.

This article appeared in the Europe section of the print edition under the headline “Business as usual”