Erdogan accepts Putin conditions, gas will be paid with ruble

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has paid an official visit to Russia today, where he met with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

After a four-hour closed-door discussion in Soci, the two leaders agreed that Turkey would pay Russia with Russian ruble currency, for part of the Russian gas Ankara supplies, CNN writes.

“In the negotiations process, the presidents agreed that they would start paying in the rubla for partial gas supplies,”, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak told reporters after the meeting, writes abcnews.al.

“We are talking about transitioning to national coins and in the first phase, part of the supplies will be paid in Russian rubles. And this is really a new phase, new opportunities, including the development of our monetary and financial relations”, Novak said.

Novak also said the two presidents reached agreement on the creation of the financial banking bloc “to enable commercial companies, Russian citizens, pay during tourist tours and exchange para”.

Putin and Erdogan agreed to hold the upcoming meeting of the Russian-Turkish High-level Co-operation Council in Turkey.

Erdogan has emerged as an important mediator between Ukraine and Russia, which is looking for ways to get out of the Western economic and political isolation for the invasion of Ukraine.

Turkey, a NATO member and a longtime EU applicant, brokered the establishment of an agreement between the two warring countries to immediately resume the shipments of Ukrainian wheat through the Black Sea.