Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, have seen a lot of each other this year. And when they're not meeting, they seem to be constantly talking with each other on the phone — so often that Russian journalists joke Putin speaks more frequently with Erdogan than with Russia's closest ally, President Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus.
The most recent get-together came Nov. 13 in the Black Sea resort city of Sochi in Russia. It was their fifth meeting this year.