Second Contract for Russia’s S-400 Delivery to Turkey to Be Signed in 2021, Arms Exporter Confirms - Sputnik International

(Sputnik) - The second contract for deliveries of Russia's S-400 Triumph air defence systems to Turkey will be signed this year, Rosoboronexport Director General Alexander Mikheev said on 25 August.

On 23 August, the head of Russia’s arms exporter company said that the contract will be signed in the near future.

"In the near future means this year. We expect that the second contract on S-400 for Turkey will be signed this year," Mikheev told reporters.

The decision by Turkey, a NATO member, to purchase the Russian-made S-400 air defence systems triggered a crisis in relations between the two allies in 2019, when the first batch, negotiated in 2017, was delivered to the country. Despite the US authorities' repeated demands to abandon the deal and ensuing sanctions, Turkey refused to make concessions and has continued negotiating additional shipments of the Russian weapons.

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• Turkey’s refusal to recognize Crimean Peninsula as Russian is now main thorn in side of partnership between two nations – Kremlin — RT

 Despite blossoming ties between Moscow and Ankara, relations now risk being derailed by Turkey’s decision to back Ukraine’s claims over the status of Crimea, after the country sent its top diplomat to Kiev in a show of support.

That’s according to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, who expressed concern that Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu participated in the ‘Crimean Summit’ forum on Monday. The meeting was held to discuss how best Ukraine can re-assert control over the peninsula, which was reabsorbed into Russia in 2014.

“Russian-Turkish relations as a whole are about partnership, not only in name, but genuinely based on a real and solid foundation of trade, economic and investment activity,” Peskov said. “But this does not mean that this relationship is free from significant disagreements.”

“The Crimean topic is the area of significant disagreement. We do not accept the position of our Turkish colleagues and we consider it absolutely wrong,” the Kremlin official added....RT