ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the relations between Russia and Turkey in the first decade of the century the so-called 2000s so as to understand the factors shaping the interactions between the two countries on domestic, regional and international levels. The first decade of the twenty-first century proved to be a turning point in Turkish Russian relations. It argues that while close trade and energy relations seems to have acted as the driving force in the warming of relations between Turkey and Russia in the post-Cold War period, the remarkable changes that took place in the regional and international political context in the 2000s have greatly contributed to the improvement of bilateral relations. A milestone in terms of the deepening regional cooperation between Turkey and Russia was the "Action Plan for Cooperation in Eurasia" signed by Ivanov and Cem in New York. The developments proved that economic relations continued to constitute the strongest dimension of the Turkish Russian "multidimensional partnership".
