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Turkey lifts ban on Russian news website amid thawing of ties

Xinhua, August 8, 2016 Adjust font size:

Turkey has lifted its ban on the Russian news website Sputnik, after months of keeping it blocked, state-run Anadolu Agency reported Monday.

The Turkish government had blocked access to Sputnik on April 14, citing "legal consideration" of a law regarding crimes committed through online broadcasts. It is now no problem for checking Sputnik news website in Turkey.

"Our website is unblocked in Turkey. Starting 10 a.m. Moscow time we began to receive messages from users that the website is accessible again. We started checking this information and it is actually working," Sputnik quoted the editor-in-chief of its Turkish version Mahir Boztepe as saying.

The ban was lifted amid the normalization of relations between Russia and Turkey, which became strained when Turkey downed a Russian warplane along the Syrian border on Nov. 24, 2015. The incident was followed by a spat of words from both sides harming diplomatic ties and economic sanctions.

The eight-month-long period of icy relations began to thaw in late June when Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan wrote a letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin to express his deep sorrow over the jet incident.

As another step toward mending ties between the countries, Russia recently officially removed all economic and touristic sanctions which had been put against Turkey.

Putin and Erdogan were scheduled to meet on Aug. 9 in St. Petersburg for the first time since the normalization process began, also marking the Turkish president's first foreign visit since the failed coup attempt on July 15. Endit