Turkish Forum

Tag: Putin

  • Putin Set to Visit Turkey After Break in Travel

    Putin Set to Visit Turkey After Break in Travel

    The Kremlin says Vladimir Putin will visit Turkey next week, a trip that follows an unusual break in the Russian president’s travel that has fueled speculation about his health.

    Putin’s office announced Wednesday that the one-day visit to Istanbul Monday will focus on economic issues.

    Putin was expected to visit Turkey in October, but he postponed that and several other foreign trips, and spent most of the past two months at his suburban residence, visiting the Kremlin only rarely. The hiatus in travel has triggered a swirl of rumors about Putin’s condition.

    One newspaper report claimed Putin had injured his back in a widely publicized flight with Siberian cranes in a motorized hang glider in September. His spokesman denied that and said that Putin pulled a muscle during judo training.

    via Putin Set to Visit Turkey After Break in Travel – ABC News.

  • Leaked document reveals plans to ‘eliminate’ Russia’s enemies overseas

    Leaked document reveals plans to ‘eliminate’ Russia’s enemies overseas

    Russia ‘gave agents licence to kill’ enemies of the state

    The Russian secret service authorised the “elimination” of individuals living overseas who were judged to be enemies of the state and ordered the creation of special units to conduct such operations, according to a document passed to The Daily Telegraph.

    The directive refers specifically to the European Union and western Europe and appears to be signed by the head of counter-intelligence of the FSB, the successor to the KGB.

    It is dated March 19, 2003 – four years before the killing of the former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko in London. It sets a provisional deadline of May 1 2004 for the new units’ work to begin.

    It is understood the document is also in the possession of Scotland Yard’s counter-terrorism command which is investigating the Litvinenko case.

    A hearing is to be held next week into whether a full inquest should take place into Mr Litvinenko’s death, as the Russian government has insisted that Andrei Lugovoi, the former KGB bodyguard who is a main suspect in the case, will never be extradited back to Britain.

    Labelled “Secret documentation. For internal use only. Do not copy”, the leaked document refers to a law on “countering extremist activities” passed eight months earlier, although that law does not refer to the use of force.

    The objectives, the directive says, are “observation, identification, possible return to the Russian Federation” of their targets.

    But it also allows for “under special directives” the “elimination outside of the Russian Federation in the countries of Near Abroad [former Soviet states] and in the European Union, of the leaders of unlawful terrorist groups and organisations, extremist formations and associations, of individuals who have left Russia illegally [and are] wanted by federal law enforcement”.

    Apparently with leaders of rebellions in the Caucasus in mind, among others, it names the crimes of those sought as terrorism, “extremist activity,” murder, kidnapping and “others classified as especially serious crimes against citizens of the Russian Federation and directed against the Russian state and government”.

    The order sets up the “intensive training of the newly formed groups and units in relation to specific conditions of work in Western Europe and countries of the European Union”.

    It says there will be “in-depth training of individual agent-analysts for work in the countries of European Union”.

    It is signed at the bottom by Col General Nechaev, First Deputy Head of the FSB counter-intelligence branch and also bears the organisation’s stamp.

    Colonel General Nechaev is a former civil and military health minister who was invited to London by the then health minister Virginia Bottomley in 1993 to “see the operation of the NHS at first hand”.

    Vladimir Putin, then the Russian president and now the prime minister, pushed a law on “counteracting terrorism” through the Russian Duma in March 2006 which gave the FSB the power to kill “terrorists” abroad.

    However, the latest document suggests an extensive secret programme was already in place.

    The Russians have conducted controversial assassinations against Chechens in Dubai, Qatar, and Vienna. The latest, in Istanbul, was just last week, when a gunman shot a Chechen rebel leader and his two bodyguards dead in a busy street in Istanbul.

    Mr Litvinenko died in a hospital bed in London in November 2006 after allegedly being poisoned by a former FSB bodyguard using radioactive polonium 210.

    Other potential Russian targets in Britain include the oligarch Boris Berezovsky, who was the subject of a suspected assassination plot in 2007, and the Chechen dissident Akhmed Zakaev.

    Mr Zakaev said: “I knew anytime that something like this could happen to me. They want to eliminate me before 2012 when Putin comes back to the Kremlin [as president]. They need to solve these ‘problems.’ That is what they call us and it doesn’t matter where we are.”

    Mr Berezovsky said: “I knew this a long time ago and there were several attempts to kill me. I was lucky, I was warned and I am safe.”

    He said he had been told again only a month ago not to travel abroad.

    via PIC AND PUB PLS: Leaked document reveals plans to ‘eliminate’ Russia’s enemies overseas – Telegraph.

  • High-Speed Trains in Russia and Turkey

    High-Speed Trains in Russia and Turkey

    Turkey got its first high-speed trains back in November 2007. It’s state railway company (TCDD) was the 8th in the world to operate high-speed trains (and the 6th in Europe). News now is that the country has just started testing out some bullet trains. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan attended an inaugural run on December 17th. Testing of these bullet trains is expected to finish in the summer of 2011 and then they will be officially launched for use on Turkish high-speed rail lines.

    vladimir putin

    Meanwhile, over in Russia, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has just announced that Russia, which was recently selected to host the 2018 FIFA World Cup (beating out England, Spain/Portugal, and Holland/Belgium for this great opportunity), will have high-speed rail connecting all of its host cities by 2018.

    “It will be a powerful incentive for the development of high speed rail services in the European part of Russia,” Putin said.

    The host cities that high-speed trains will be running back and forth between are Moscow, Kazan, Samara, and Ulyanovsk.

    Putin made this announcement after trying out a new high-speed train from Finland to Russia. He and Finnish President Tarja Halonen got to go on “an inaugural journey on the French-made high speed Allegro train linking Helsinki to St. Petersburg” last week.

    It is great to see the world moving forward on this clean, fun transportation technology. High-speed rail uses uses 1/3 the energy of airplanes (per passenger) and 1/5 the energy of automobiles (per passenger).

    via High-Speed Trains in Russia and Turkey – EcoLocalizer.

  • ARMENIA: PUTIN VISIT TO TURKEY SPARKS HOPES AND FEARS IN YEREVAN

    ARMENIA: PUTIN VISIT TO TURKEY SPARKS HOPES AND FEARS IN YEREVAN

    NOTE: Below is Armenian view of Putin’s visit to Turkey. Aram Safarian, a member of the Prosperous Armenia Party, part of Armenia’s government coalition declared that Armenia and Russia are strategic partners. Last year Russian planes used Armenian air fields to attack Georgia, a friend of NATO. Armenia continues to occupy 20% of Azerbaijan territory. Azerbaijan is a U.S. ally

    Bunch of American legislators are circulating letters in congress on behalf of Armenia, an admitted Russian strategic ally against Turkey, a staunch ally of U.S. and member of NATO.

    What is wrong with this picture?

    Eurasia Insight:

    ARMENIA: PUTIN VISIT TO TURKEY SPARKS HOPES AND FEARS IN YEREVAN

    Haroutiun Khachatrian: 8/11/09

    Haroutiun Khachatrian is an editor at Noyan Tapan news service in Yerevan, and a specialist in economic reporting. His reports also appear on EurasiaNet.

    Armenians watched Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s August 6-7 visit to Turkey with a mixture of hope and suspicion. While many in Yerevan see potential benefits arising out of closer Turkish-Russian ties, worries persist among Armenian leaders and experts that Turkey’s importance in the eyes of the Kremlin may come to outweigh that of Armenia.

    Officially, there was no indication that the issue of Armenian-Turkish relations was discussed in any form during Putin’s trip to Ankara. The visit led to Turkey’s agreement to environmental impact studies relating to the Russian-backed South Stream gas pipeline project, as well as the signing of accords on Russian construction of a nuclear power plant, the country’s first.

    So far, the Armenian government has adopted a neutral tone on the visit. But after more than a year of attempts at normalizing relations with Turkey and reopening the Armenian-Turkish border, the visit nevertheless stirred mixed feelings in Yerevan. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].

    “Of course, it is not a pleasant thing to see your strategic partner [Russia] building ambitious programs with countries with which Armenia has problems,” the online magazine new.am quoted MP Aram Safarian, a member of the Prosperous Armenia Party, part of Armenia’s government coalition, as saying.

    Yet in the energy sphere, Armenian and Russian interests can easily coincide with those of Turkey, noted Alexander Iskandarian, director of the Yerevan-based Caucasus Institute. “Russia is a major shareholder in the Armenian energy system and is interested in the possibility of exporting Armenian electricity to Turkey. This indicates that Turkish-Russian contacts are beneficial to Armenia,” he said.

    Electricity exports to Turkey were expected to start in April-May 2009, but so far have not begun. There has been no official explanation for the delay, but, presumably, diplomatic obstacles are to blame.

    One opposition member, though, believes that Russia’s involvement in Turkey may upset the existing balance of power in the South Caucasus, with uncertain results for Armenia.

    “Russia has already somewhat shattered the balance in the region by intensifying its contacts with Turkey and, especially, with Azerbaijan,” said political analyst Styopa Safarian, a MP affiliated with the Heritage Party and member of parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee. Moscow recently signed an agreement with Baku on gas sales to the Russian republic of Dagestan and named a price for gas purchases from the second phase of the country’s ambitious Shah Deniz project. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].

    Other experts are more optimistic, believing that the Kremlin will push officials in Ankara to reopen Turkey’s border with Armenia. Such a development would ease Armenia’s ability to export goods. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive]. “Russia, in fact, is interested in opening the Turkish-Armenian border, as after the August 2008 war, it lost Georgia as a route to Armenia, its military and economic partner,” observed Iskandarian.

    Whether that interest is sufficiently strong to have prompted Putin to try and decouple the reopening of the border from the Karabakh peace process remains unknown, however. Ankara has insisted that Armenia meet a set of conditions on the conflict before it will reopen its border with Armenia. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].

    In late July, President Serzh Sargsyan stated that he would not visit Turkey in October unless the border is open or is close to opening by that time. [For details, see the Eurasia Insight archive].

    Turkey maintains that it is sincere about wanting to see the border with Armenia reopen, although no noticeable progress has been made on this score recently. “Turkey has prospects in the Caucasus both in terms of Turkey-Armenia and Armenia-Azerbaijan relations,” Turkish Foreign Minister Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said on August 9, the APA news agency reported. “That’s why Turkey is resolute to normalize the relations with Armenia and our contacts on this theme continue.”

    Editor’s Note: Haroutiun Khachatrian is an editor and freelance writer based in Yerevan.

  • Turkish-Russian Grand Bargain in Energy Cooperation

    Turkish-Russian Grand Bargain in Energy Cooperation

    Turkish-Russian Grand Bargain in Energy Cooperation

    Publication: Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 6 Issue: 152
    August 7, 2009
    By: Saban Kardas
    Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s August 6 visit to Ankara marked a new era for “enhanced multi-dimensional partnership,” between Ankara and Moscow. Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdogan signed some twenty agreements covering energy, trade and other fields. Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi also attended part of the talks between Erdogan and Putin, considering the involvement of Italian companies in some of these projects. The most remarkable dimension of the various joint projects concerns energy cooperation, most notably Turkey’s expression of support for Russia’s South Stream project (Anadolu Ajansi, www.cnnturk.com, www.ntvmsnbc.com, August 6).

    In oil transportation, Russia committed to participate in the planned Samsun-Ceyhan pipeline (SCP), connecting the Turkish Black Sea city of Samsun to the Mediterranean terminal Ceyhan. Turkey has solicited Russian participation in the SCP, which will bypass the congested Turkish Straits. Moscow has proven reluctant, and has instead promoted another bypass option through Burgas-Alexandroupolis between Bulgaria and Greece. Meanwhile, Turkey took further steps to make the SCP attractive for the Russian side, by linking this project with the Turkish-Israeli-Indian energy partnership (EDM, November 25, 2008).

    Erdogan expressed his pleasure with the Russian decision to commit its crude. Ankara can consider this development as its greatest success in this grand bargain, given that Turkey has worked to convert Ceyhan, where the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline also terminates, into a global energy hub. However, Putin did not rule out interest in Burgas-Alexandroupolis, and instead emphasized that the two pipelines might be complementary in meeting the growing demand for export routes. This statement raises questions about how committed Russia will be to the SCP, given that Russian companies own the majority of shares in the other Burgas-Alexandroupolis option.

    In terms of gas cooperation, Turkey will allow Russia to conduct explorations and feasibility studies in the Turkish exclusive economic zone in the Black Sea, as part of Russian plans to construct South Stream. Since this move comes against the background of Turkey’s decision to sign the rival Nabucco pipeline agreement last month, it raises many questions, as to how it will affect Nabucco, which Turkey considers a “strategic priority,” as well as European energy security issues. Despite the questions surrounding its feasibility and high costs, as well as its negative implications for Nabucco, Erdogan maintained that both projects contribute to diversification efforts.

    It appears that the “grand bargain” was between the SCP and Blue Stream. Ahead of the meeting, Yuri Ushakov, the Deputy Head of the Russian Government Staff said that “Turkey made concessions in South Stream and we made concessions in SCP,” but added that he had doubts over the SCP’s feasibility (Anadolu Ajansi, August 5). A statement from Berlusconi’s office also claimed that he had helped broker a rapprochement between both countries on these two issues (Hurriyet Daily News, August 6). However, domestically, there are concerns that in this “exchange” of concessions, Turkey did not gain much. The SCP’s importance was inflated, because it was developed by business interests close to the government (www.turksam.org.tr, August 7). Another gas deal concerned Ankara’s request to renew the contract under which it purchases Russian gas through the Western pipeline via the Balkans. Erdogan announced that the contract (which expires in 2011) will be renewed for 20 years. Turkey had complained about the high prices and the leave-or-pay conditions in its gas deals with Russia. Putin said it was renewed on favorable terms to Turkey, but the contract’s details are unclear.

    Erdogan also said that they discussed the extension of Blue Stream II to transport Russian gas to Israel, Lebanon and even Cyprus. Blue Stream, running underneath the Black Sea, is the second route carrying Russian gas to Turkey. Moscow previously raised the possibility that it could use Blue Stream II in order to transport gas to Europe, but this option was rejected, since it contradicted Nabucco and Russia sought to use Turkey only as a transportation route. Now, Ankara wants to revive it as part of a North-South corridor. Based on the leaders’ statements, it appears that the existing capacity of Blue Stream might be improved and gas could be transferred to the Mediterranean through this pipeline.

    However, although Erdogan praised this development as another major success, there is no guarantee that Russia will grant “re-export rights,” which indicates that if Blue Stream II is implemented, Moscow will continue to view Turkish territory as a mere conduit for its gas, which raises the question: how will Turkey benefit from the agreement? Russian priorities also involve Turkey’s first nuclear power plant tender, which was awarded to a Russian-Turkish consortium. As the original price was too high, the tender has long awaited cabinet approval (EDM, January 26). Meanwhile, the Russian side lowered the price, and offered a compromise. Prior to Putin’s visit, it was expected that with further “bargaining,” a final deal might be reached, but apparently it failed. Nevertheless, Ankara and Moscow signed protocols regarding energy cooperation, including the use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes, early notification of accidents, exchange of information on facilities, and to continue talks on the nuclear tender.

    The most controversial development is perhaps Ankara’s support for South Stream. Erdogan reiterated his belief that Nabucco and South Stream are complementary, yet turned a blind eye to several Russian officials’ (including Putin) statements to the contrary. It is assumed in Ankara that growing European energy demand will accommodate both projects; but this ignores the competition between both projects over the same downstream markets. Moreover, the Turkish side fails to appreciate the challenges Russia is facing in investing in its domestic gas industry, and acts on the assumption that “Russia has enormous reserves,” while failing to realize that Russia is also planning to tap into the same upstream producers, namely Central Asian and Caspian gas, just as the Nabucco project envisages (www.ntvmsnbc.com, August 6).

    Putin also added that a consensus was reached on Russia building gas storage facilities in the Salt Lake. Taken together with the announced joint investments between Turkish and Russian firms, including Gazprom, it is unclear whether the Turkish government recognizes the consequences of these decisions. Russia has effectively used the practice of co-opting the gas infrastructure of transport and consumer countries, as part of its efforts to monopolize downstream markets. It is unclear how this penetration into the Turkish grid might affect Ankara’s future energy policies.

    https://jamestown.org/program/turkish-russian-grand-bargain-in-energy-cooperation/
  • Turkey and Russia Conclude Energy Deals

    Turkey and Russia Conclude Energy Deals

    By SEBNEM ARSU
    a1Published: August 6, 2009

    ISTANBUL — Russia and Turkey concluded energy agreements on Thursday that will support Turkey’s drive to become a regional hub for fuel transshipments while helping Moscow maintain its monopoly on natural gas shipments from Asia to Europe.

    Turkey granted the Russian natural gas giant Gazprom use of its territorial waters in the Black Sea, under which the company wants to route its so-called South Stream pipeline to gas markets in Eastern and Southern Europe.

    In return, a Russian oil pipeline operator agreed to join a consortium to build a pipeline across the Anatolian Peninsula, from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean, and Gazprom affirmed a commitment to expand an existing Black Sea gas pipeline for possible transshipment across Turkey to Cyprus or Israel.

    Energy companies in both countries agreed to a joint venture to build conventional electric power plants, and the Interfax news agency in Russia reported that Prime MinisterVladimir V. Putin offered to reopen talks on Russian assistance to Turkey in building nuclear power reactors.

    The agreements were signed in Ankara, the Turkish capital, in meetings between Mr. Putin and his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Italy’s prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, who has joined Mr. Putin on several energy projects, attended the ceremony. The Italian company Eni broke ground on the trans-Anatolian oil pipeline this year.

    While the offer of specific pipeline deals and nuclear cooperation represented a new tactic by Mr. Putin, the wider struggle for dominance of the Eurasian pipelines is a long-running chess match in which he has often excelled.

    As he has in the past, Mr. Putin traveled to Turkey with his basket of tempting strategic and economic benefits immediately after a similar mission by his opponents. A month ago, European governments signed an agreement in Turkey to support the Western-backed Nabucco pipeline, which would compete directly with the South Stream project.

    By skirting Russian territory, the Nabucco pipeline would undercut Moscow’s monopoly on European natural gas shipments and the pricing power and political clout that come with it. That may explain why Nabucco, which cannot go forward without Turkey’s support, has encountered a variety of obstacles thrown up by the Russian government, including efforts to deny it vital gas supplies in the East and a customer base in the West.

    Turkey and other countries in the path of Nabucco have been eager players in this geopolitical drama, entertaining offers from both sides. Turkish authorities have even tried, without much success, to leverage the pipeline negotiations to further Turkey’s bid to join the European Union, while keeping options with Russia open, too.

    “These countries are more than happy to sign agreements with both parties,” Ana Jelenkovic, an analyst at Eurasia Group, a political risk consultancy, said in a telephone interview from London. “There’s no political benefit to shutting out or ceasing energy relations with Russia.”

    Under the deal Mr. Putin obtained Thursday, Gazprom will be allowed to proceed with seismic and environmental tests in Turkey’s exclusive economic zone, necessary preliminary steps for laying the South Stream pipe, Prime Minister Erdogan said at a news conference.

    After the meeting, Mr. Putin said, “We agreed on every issue.”

    The trans-Anatolian oil pipeline also marginally improves Russia’s position in the region. The pipeline is one of two so-called Bosporus bypass systems circumventing the straits between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean, which are operating at capacity in tanker traffic.

    The preferred Western route is the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, which allows companies to ship Caspian Basin crude oil to the West without crossing Russian territory; the pipeline instead crosses the former Soviet republic of Georgia and avoids the crowded straits by cutting across Turkey to the Mediterranean.

    Russia prefers northbound pipelines out of the Caspian region that terminate at tanker terminals on the Black Sea. The success of this plan depends, in turn, on creating additional capacity in the Bosporus bypass routes. Russia is backing two such pipelines.

    Mr. Putin’s offer to move ahead with a Russian-built nuclear power plant in Turkey suggests a sweetening of the overall Russian offer on energy deals with Turkey, while both Western and Russian proposals are on the table.

    The nuclear aspect of the deal drew protests. About a dozen Greenpeace protesters were surrounded by at least 200 armored police officers in central Ankara on Thursday.

    Andrew E. Kramer contributed reporting from Moscow.

    The New York Times