The strengthening partnership between the leaders of Russia and Turkey, Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdogan, irritates Western countries and especially Ankara's NATO partners. This opinion was expressed by the columnist of the American newspaper The New York Times Stephen Erlanger.
"Mutual challenges have brought the two presidents closer than ever. They have met twice in the last three weeks," the columnist wrote, recalling the recent trip of the Turkish politician to Sochi.
The journalist believes that the indignation of the representatives of the North Atlantic Alliance is explained by the fact that the Turkish president actually "creates a gap in the dam of sanctions", which the West is trying to build. Erlanger added that this situation is only beneficial to Erdogan himself: he bypasses restrictions by continuing to cooperate with Russian business, and restrains Moscow's influence on Syria (where the interests of the two countries diverge).
Bloomberg columnists previously also noted that it was Turkey that caused the split of the united Western front on the issue of anti-Russian restrictive measures. Ankara ignored calls to join the sanctions against Moscow: because of what they were not so effective.
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