During the meeting of the Valdai Discussion Club, Russian President Vladimir Putin commented on the statement of Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan about the non-recognition of Crimea as part of Russia. According to Putin, the position of his Turkish counterpart on this issue is not important, the main thing is that Russia’s interests are reliably protected.
“As for some aspirations (of the President of Turkey) regarding Crimea: I don’t know. This is not interesting to me, since Russia’s interests are reliably protected. And you can never doubt this for a second, ”TASS quoted Putin as saying.
Earlier, Erdogan, meeting with the President of Ukraine, said that Ankara does not recognize Crimea as Russian. The head of the republic also promised to monitor the situation of the Crimean Tatars on the peninsula.