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.