ИСТИНА

Following Putin’s election as the new president of the Russian Federation in 2000, relations between Turkey and Russia have continuously improved not only in terms of cooperation in technical areas such as trade and energy, but also regarding their dialogue in major regional and global political issues. The rapprochement between the two countries has been so remarkable that some even started to view it as the formation of a new strategic axis in Eurasia. Although the term ‘strategic’ may be a little too ambitious for defining the relations between Turkey and Russia, it is still possible to argue that the positive course of their bilateral relations throughout the 2000s replaced the old notion which viewed the two countries as geopolitical rivals in the Caucasus and Central Asia.