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Trade, tanker-jams, Chechnya on agenda in Putin's Turkey visit

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  • Trade, tanker-jams, Chechnya on agenda in Putin's Turkey visit

    Associated Press Worldstream
    December 1, 2004 Wednesday 11:18 AM Eastern Time

    Trade, tanker-jams, Chechnya on agenda in Putin's Turkey visit

    ALEX NICHOLSON; Associated Press Writer

    MOSCOW

    Trade, tanker-jams in the Bosporus Strait and the thorny subject of
    conflict in Chechnya are expected to dominate talks when Russian
    President Vladimir Putin makes a state visit to Turkey on Sunday -
    the first by a Russian leader since the Soviet collapse.

    The two-day visit had been slated for September, but was postponed
    when Chechen and other rebels seized a school in southern Russia in
    an attack that ended with more than 330 people dead, mostly children.

    Putin is to meet with Turkish President Ahmet Necdet Sezer and Prime
    Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

    Turkey and Russia have been rivals for centuries, competing for
    influence in Central Asia, the Caucasus and the Balkans. That
    competition increased after the fall of the Soviet Union and the
    independence of Turkic states in Central Asia and the Caucasus.

    But recently, rivalries have subsided and the two countries have been
    concentrating on trade.

    Bilateral trade is expected to exceed US$10 billion ([euro]7.5
    billion) this year, Russia's Industry and Energy Minister Viktor
    Khristenko said recently. He said that tourism, construction and
    commerce by small-time "shuttle traders" who buy Turkish goods for
    sale in Russia boosts trade volume to more than US$15 billion
    ([euro]11 billion).

    Turkish companies are active in Russia in retail, construction and
    brewing, and investment to date totals US$2 billion ([euro]1.5
    billion), Khristenko said.

    Energy issues are likely to play a major role in the talks. In an
    interview with CNN-Turk television in September, Putin said that his
    country, which already provides some 60 percent of Turkey's natural
    gas imports, was considering selling oil to Turkey and exporting fuel
    to other countries via Turkey.

    Turkey is expected to push Russia to commit to a costly
    Turkish-proposed Trans-Thracian pipeline that would run from the
    Black Sea to the Aegean. Turkish officials warn that traffic in the
    narrow, 21-mile Bosporus has soared by some 30 percent in the past
    two years -- and that it can't handle more Russian oil tankers.

    Much of the increased traffic is from Russia's Black Sea port of
    Novorossiisk, and exports to the Black Sea via the Caspian pipeline
    from Kazakhstan are only set to grow.

    Putin and Erdogan are also expected to discuss contentious issues
    such as the Caucasus, where Turkey is allied with Azerbaijan and
    Russia is friendly with its rival, Armenia.

    There could also be tension over Chechnya. Turks sympathize with
    their fellow Muslims in the war-ravaged Russian region, and many
    Turks trace their ancestry to the Caucasus. Russia has called on
    Turkey to crack down on Turkish charities that it claims are doing
    too little to stop funds, weapons and new cadres from reaching terrorists.
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