Russia and Turkey want to resume their dialogue, Russian President Vladimir Putin stated at the outset of the meeting with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in St. Petersburg.

According to him, during the previous years the level and nature of the ties between the countries reached an unprecedentedly high level and quality. However, after the notorious tragedy with the Russian jet fighter, as a result of which Russian servicemen died, they dropped to a very low level and degraded.

“Together with this, despite the very complex inter-political situation in Turkey, your visit today shows that we all want to resume our talks for the sake of the interests of the Turkish and Russian people,” Putin said, addressing Erdoğan.

The Russian President also noted that he was one of the first to call Erdoğan and tell him words of support for overcoming the inter-political crisis related to the attempted coup.

“I want to reiterate that this is our principled stance. We are always categorically against any attempts of non-constitutional actions. In this connection, I’d like to express hope that under your leadership the Turkish nation will cope with this problem and the order and constitutional legitimacy will be restored,” he concluded.