...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...on Thursday meets his
... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him...
for talks on Syria and a key weapons deal, hoping to strengthen an increasingly active relationship that has troubled the West.
Despite a regional rivalry that goes back to the Ottoman Empire and the Romanov dynasty, Russia and
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....
have been working closely since a 2016 reconciliation ended a crisis caused by the shooting down of a Russian war plane over Syria.
"Russia and Turkey are cooperating very tightly," Putin's front man Dmitry Peskov said ahead of the one-day working visit by Putin to Ankara.
The two will hold a working dinner before a one-on-one meeting and a presser at 9:30 pm at Erdogan's palace, the
Turkey and Russia have been on opposing sides during the more than six years of war in Syria, with Russia the key backer of
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneckal-Assad
Oppressor of the Syrians and the Lebs...
and Turkey supporting rebels seeking his ouster.