It was not so long ago that Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdogan were the best of chums. As recently as last week, the Russian and Turkish presidents were seen shaking hands for the cameras at the G20 summit in the Turkish resort town of Antalya. Russia-watchers surely remember how the Kremlin’s master snubbed Europe last December, when he announced from Ankara that a planned pipeline that would transport gas from Russia across the Black Sea to central Europe was to be replaced by a pipeline passing through Turkey.
