Russian citizens are in favour of renewing cooperation with Turkey in all spheres

UFA, 15 May 2017. /Bashinform News Agency, Alim Faizov/. Citizens of the Russian Federation have ceased to perceive Turkey as a hostile state and are in favour of restoring bilateral contacts in all spheres, the Izvestia newspaper reports citing data from the All-Russian Public Opinion Research Centre (VCIOM). According to sociologists, if in 2016 70% of respondents decribed Russian-Turkish relations as "tense" or "hostile", now only 28% of citizens agree with such assessments. In the opinion of experts, in many respects, the last meetings of the leaders of the two countries influenced the improvement of the Turkey image in the eyes of Russians.

According to VCIOM, despite a high percentage of negative assessments, a change in public opinion did take place: 49% of Russians already agree that even if there are contradictions, Russia should support and develop cooperation with Turkey (in early 2016, this position was followed by 19% ). Simultaneously, the share of radical citizens being in favour of an isolation policy towards Turkey also decreased from 35 to 12%.

Contacts between Russia and Turkey stopped in many areas after the Turkish Air Force shot down a Russian aircraft in the sky over Syria in November 2015. After that, Moscow introduced a number of restrictive measures in trade and economic relations with Ankara.

The normalization of relations began in late June 2016 after a telephone conversation between the presidents of the two countries. This year, the Turkish leader visited Russia twice. As a result of the recent meeting, the heads of states noted that the relations between Russia and Turkey were gradually recovering to the full extent.

As previously reported, this year for the period of May holidays it was Turkey, which became the leader of trips for Russians.