Vladimir Putin has congratulated Turkey’s economy officials on cutting their country’s official inflation to 50% from 80%, Turkish daily Sozcu reported on December 5.

The Russian leader remarked on their achievement in response to a question from a Turkish journalist put during a Moscow press conference held on December 4 as part of the 15th VTB (Moscow/VTBR) Investment Forum “RUSSIA CALLING!” 2024 event.

Video footage from @Kerim_HAS: Russian officials in the audience laugh at Putin’s Turkey jest.

Old habit

For Putin, joking around with Turkey’s official inflation figures is something of an old habit. He’s ever eager to convince the Russians that he does not poke his nose into the work of Elvira Nabiullina, Putin’s orthodox choice when it comes to his central bank and monetary policy. In his regular attempts to convince the Russians that Central Bank of Russia (CBR) governor Nabiullina never asks his opinion ahead of introducing higher interest rates that bite, Putin says that Russia would turn into Turkey if he did not keep his nose out of Nabiullina’s mandate.

Hers is a technical business and those who are not technicians in this business do not understand it, according to Putin.

Rancour

Lately, Putin’s sympathies for Turkey have tested new lows with the surprise offensive launched by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s jihadists in Syria.

For the Russian president, attacking Ukraine was the worst mistake of his life. For contrast, look at China. The US provokes Beijing with its Taiwan policy and so on. However, China does not fall into Washington’s traps.

Perhaps it is because China is an oligarchy. When it comes to eliminating errors caused by human weaknesses, an oligarchy can prove superior compared to the one-man regime.

Golden rule

It is a golden rule that whoever does business with Erdogan eventually pays through the nose. Putin is no exception to this rule.

Since 2016, Putin has been presented with many chances to push Erdogan’s jihadists into Turkey. However, he preferred to partner with Erdogan via the Astana Talks.

Erdogan is the guarantor of both Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and the Free Syrian Army (FSA/OSO), the two forces spearheading the offensive in northwestern Syria against the Moscow-backed Damascus regime.

If Putin is feeling emotionally betrayed after being swindled by Erdogan over Syria, here’s a list of some Erdogan allies that were eventually taken for a ride by Turkey’s president. Some of them are still alive. He could place a call or two for some mutual pouring out of grief.

Unfortunately, it is not practical to compile and publish the full list. That would have to include each and every person who has ever entered into a transaction with Erdogan.

Cold to jokes

The problem for Turkish soldiers in Syria is that Putin does not like joking when it comes to business.

On February 27, 2020, Erdogan sent some troops without air coverage to a location under Russian-controlled air space in northwestern Syria. Putin murdered 34 of them with his jets.

On March 8, 2020, Erdogan ended up looking discomfited and disrespected on Russian TV channels as Putin kept him waiting in an anteroom in the Kremlin for a meeting.

Simsek bad, Babacan good

Putin is also displeased with Mehmet Simsek, Turkey’s finance minister. Simsek has been taking steps to obey Western sanctions targeting Russia.

In an apparent message to Simsek, Putin in June invited a former Turkish finance minister, Ali Babacan, who is also a pro-Western character, to the St Petersburg International Economic Forum. The Russians even presented an award to Babacan.

It appeared that they were pointing to Babacan as walking, talking proof that it is possible to remain pro-Western and market-friendly while at the same time serving Russian interests.

Pragmatic partnership still endures

Putin, meanwhile, has grown increasingly unhappy with the amount of Turkish military hardware being sent to arm Ukraine. And the disagreements between the Erdogan and Putin regimes also extend to how to deal with Libya. 

However, so far, the various differences between Moscow and Ankara have not caused any dramatic shift in the longstanding Putin-Erdogan pragmatic partnership.

Part of that partnership saw Erdogan allocate a major land plot to Putin in Mersin province on Nato member Turkey’s Mediterranean coast, in the vicinity of the US’ Incirlik air base. On that land, Putin is building a port and a “nuclear bomb”, or rather the Akkuyu nuclear power plant. Placing some radar equipment there to ensure the security of the plant is a must.

The location has long been interesting in that the US saw the Taurus Mountains as offering a stronghold in the event of a Soviet attack on Turkey. The Incirlik base stands behind those mountains for that very reason. A Putin nuclear facility in the area is not something the Pentagon will have reckoned with.

Finally, Erdogan is playing a useful role for Putin interests by re-exporting Russian natural gas, oil, wheat and barley via schemes that bust the Americans’ Ukraine War sanctions on Moscow.