MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Speaking at the Deepening Turkey-Russia Relations conference, jointly organized by the Center for Strategic Research (SAM) of the Turkish Foreign Ministry and Russian International Affairs' Council (RAIC), the ambassador added that the countries had "restored bilateral relations on a political level but we need one or two years to reach the pre-crisis level in economic relations."
"In the last three months, our presidents Putin and Erdogan met three times and had phone conversations 11 times. President Putin has not spoken with any other world leader as often as he has spoken with President Erdogan,'' Karlov said, as cited by the Daily Sabah newspaper.
After Turkey’s F-16 fighter jet downed the Russian Su-24 combat plane on an anti-terror mission over Syria in November 2015. Moscow imposed a number of restrictive measures on Turkey in response Ankara'a refusal to take responsibility for downing the plane and to cover the material losses to the country and the family of the pilot killed in the incident, A thaw in relations between Moscow and Ankara began in June following Turkey's apology to Russia.
