MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The Turkish tourism industry faced a decline after Russia banned organized travel to the republic in the wake of the November 24, 2015, downing of a Russian Su-24 attack aircraft by Turkey over an alleged airspace violation.
"The resumption of tourist relations between Russia and Turkey is now more dependent on the provision of security by the Turkish side. We see that our country has much better relations with Egypt than with Turkey, but the air service [to Egypt] still has not been resumed [because of security reasons]," Barzykin told RIA Novosti.
Later on Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan will have a phone conversation for the first time in more than seven months.
