...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....
and Russia on Monday signed a deal to build a gas pipeline from Russia as the two countries pressed ahead with efforts to normalize ties.
Russian President Vladimir Putin
...Second and fourth President and sixth of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from polonium poisoning. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead...and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan
... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him...
watched as their countries' energy ministers sealed an intergovernmental agreement for the "Turkish Stream" project that would bring gas from Russia to Turkey. It would then be distributed to European Union
...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing...
nations.
The project, which had been suspended amid tensions between the two countries, was signed on the sidelines of the World Energy Congress.
In other steps aimed at restoring ties, Putin announced that Russia had agreed to cut natural gas export prices to Turkey and resume importing fruit, vegetables and other agricultural goods from the country. Russia is building Turkey's first nuclear power plant, and Erdogan said the sides agreed to accelerate the project.
| Al Ahram has the technical details. |