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MOSCOW – In pictures, smiling is always the most popular Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The President of Turkey also carried out his mission yesterday. Great statements of principles, many optimism. “A just peace can be achieved in Ukraine with the help of diplomacy”He stressed that there will be no winners in war while there are no losers in a just peace. “Our goal is stop the bloodshed as soon as possible, reach a truce“.

There was a great expectation Conversation between Erdogan and Vladimir Putin, which took place in Astana, capital of Kazakhstan, during the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia. A few days ago, the Turkish newspaper MillietHe wrote, very close to his government, that Ankara had already sent the proposal for regulation to Washington Dialogue of Western countries with Russia on Ukraine. In the absence of any representative from KyivBecause this appears to be the most important precondition that Moscow would impose on potential negotiations.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the expected meeting lasted about an hour and a half. There was no talk of peace, but rather of trade. The issue of Russian-Ukrainian reconfiguration was not discussed.” The Russian president praised his counterpart. “Despite the difficulties, I still find the opportunity to meet regularly, communicate, and this leads to good results.” For Turkey, of course. In fact, Putin suggested to Erdogan to establish in his country The largest gas depot in Europe. “If there are your interests and the interests of any other buyers, we can do that and adjust prices to the normal market level, without any political influence.”

Turkey more and more The only European country to welcome Putin, Russia with open arms. In 2022, trade between the two countries has already exceeded fifty billion dollars, more than 34 in 2021, which is already a record high. Since the beginning of the year, they are almost Ten thousand Russians bought a house in Turkey. Then there is the politics. “Thanks to cooperation with Turkey and not with the West, Russia remains in the international first division, the athletes say.” The thesis of the political scientist Stanislav Tarasov is clear. But when the summit ends with nothing, it is legitimate to question the reasons. Some analysts on the Russian side say they are convinced of the slowdown on the part of the United States, which wants to wait for the outcome of the Ukrainian counterattack. Others argue that Moscow prefers to walk alone, without resorting to intermediaries.

Sergey Lavrov, it is certainly not a coincidence that he was intercepted in the corridors of the Astana Conference correspondent of the State Agency IzvestiaHe appears to be addressing the United States directly. “We are not saying that we are suddenly open to dialogue. In the West they keep saying that there is no talking with Russia, and that Zelensky will talk to us when his negotiating position is stronger. Hence, we are bound to say that No one came to us with serious proposals. We will not run after anyone. Washington, as they say in our country, has seven Fridays a week, almost the same as Zelensky. Hence, we do not give any suggestions. But if there are specific and serious proposals, we will be ready to study them.”

With stops so far away and so slowly, the train of diplomacy seems to be moving again. This was also confirmed by Peskov’s last statement, which was distinguished by remarkable political realism. “The objectives of the special military operation do not change. But we reiterate our readiness to reach them through negotiations.”. But there is still a long way to go, and at the moment it is not clear who the driver could be.