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Putin to have phone talk with Turkish counterpart: Kremlin

Xinhua, June 28, 2016 Adjust font size:

Russian President Vladimir Putin is set to have a telephone conversation Wednesday with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Kremlin said Tuesday.

The decision was made after the Russian side received Erdogan's apologies over the death of the Russian pilot on the Su-24 bomber downed by Ankara in November last year.

"We will need to take more than one step in each other's direction, one shouldn't think that everything can be normalized in a few days, but work on this will continue," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was quoted as saying by the RIA Novosti news agency.

"In particular, tomorrow, a phone call between President Putin and President Erdogan will be held at Russia's initiative," Peskov said.

Kremlin said Monday that a letter was sent by Erdogan to Putin containing both an expression of regret and an apology for downing the Russian bomber, voicing readiness to mend ties.

According to Peskov, this was an important step made in the direction of normalizing relations, which have soured after Turkish forces shot down a Russian Su-24 jet near the Turkish-Syrian border on Nov. 24, 2015 for alleged airspace violation.

Denying such accusations by Turkey, Russian leaders have repeatedly said relations between the two countries could be restored only after Ankara apologizes and provides compensation to Russia for the downed aircraft and to the family of the killed pilot Oleg Peshkov. Endi