ABSTRACT
The dynamics of strategic partnership building between Turkey and Russia have been highly uneven and can hardly be stabilized. It is the multi-dimensional and changeable war in Syria that produces the heaviest impact on this relationship, and the deep differences in Turkish and Russian goals in this crisis determine the limits of their cooperation in promoting the peace process. One factor of great importance in the development of bilateral ties is the personal relations between Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, although the trust that was badly damaged in the fighter jet crisis that emerged in late 2015 cannot be fully reconstituted. While cultivating friendly connections, Moscow always checks its course against the fact that Turkey is a NATO member state and therefore a party to the evolving confrontation between Russia and the West. The Russian leadership perceives Turkey as a “weaker link” in the hostile NATO alliance and is therefore eager to exploit opportunities for undermining the transatlantic solidarity. Every tension in Turkey’s relations with the U.S. and EU in this sense is assessed in Moscow as a “net gain”, although in the final analysis, the rapprochement with Ankara cannot alter the reality of strategic rivalry between the two countries.
