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Russian President Vladimir Putin has postponed a planned trip to Turkey to meet with President Recep Tayyip Erdo\u011fan until after the upcoming Russian presidential elections, the Kremlin said on Monday.<\/p>\n
“The president has a rather full and intensive schedule until the elections, and Mr Erdo\u011fan’s is also very full,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov<\/a><\/span><\/span> told journalists after being asked about the trip, according to Russian news agency Interfax.<\/p>\n However, preparations for the meeting, initially scheduled for February, continue, he added.<\/p>\n Russia’s presidential elections will take place in March, with Putin widely expected to be confirmed in office for a further six years.<\/p>\n A visit to Turkey would be Putin’s first trip to a NATO member state since launching the full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022.<\/p>\n Putin, against whom an arrest warrant has been issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague over suspected war crimes in Ukraine, rarely travels abroad these days.<\/p>\n On Monday, Putin and Erdo\u011fan spoke on the phone on occasion of the Turkish president’s 70th birthday, according to the Kremlin. The Russian president praised Erdo\u011fan’s commitment to Turkish-Russian relations, it said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n