The first meeting between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Russian President Vladimir Putin since the downing of the Russian jet in November 2015 was a much-anticipated event. A few hours before the encounter Aug. 9, the Turkish media released a story on the details of the clandestine shuttle diplomacy to end the Russia-Turkey crisis. Interestingly, all of the alleged back-channel negotiators were also present at the meeting, to demonstrate the immense political will behind the talks.
The underlying motive for the rendezvous between Erdogan and Putin was best framed by Russia’s leading political commentator, Fyodor Lukyanov, when he said, “[Russia and Turkey] are two great powers with close historical, cultural and geographical ties with Europe that have never been recognized as 'our guys' there. After the Cold War both got 'dropped off' from the 'Big Europe' project. Paradoxically, it was Putin and Erdogan who at the early stages of their rule invested the most efforts to 'fit in the project.' Thus they both have similar trajectories of disappointment."