Putin Criticizes Turkish Authorities for Collaboration with Jihadists

As the president said in answer to a question, the current Turkish government is not fighting against extremist forces, but working with them.

Turkey's internal problems force to think about security issues, he said in response to a question about when will Moscow resume the promotion of tourist travel to Turkey.

In fact, he stated, there is a civil war in that nation, although the international community tries not to pay attention to this reality.

On the situation in Russia, he said that the nation is neither surrounded, nor it will be, by adversaries, in a hostile circle. We have very good relations with most countries in the world, said the president.

He said he considers Turkey 'a friendly country' in the same way that the Turkish people is a friend of the Russian people.

He noted, however, that there are problems with 'certain politicians and certain figures, whose behavior we find inappropriate', adding that in such a situation Russia reacts in a way it considers to be relevant.

He added that Moscow is willing to extend a friendly hand to any politician, if he desires so, however, 'if a person decides he wants to drown, then it is impossible to save him.'

The end of that response was directed at 12-year-old girl Varia Kuznetsova, whose first question was who would Putin save if the presidents Recep Tayyip Erdogan, from Turkey, and Petro Poroshenko, from Ukraine, were drowning.

The Rossiya-24 channel reported that after two hours of the Hotline, three million calls were made from as far in Russia as the Far East.