Putin to visit Erdogan to propose new format of negotiations on Ukraine on favorable terms for Russia - Feygin

He said this in an interview with Anton Borkovskyi, host of the Studio West program on Espreso TV.

"I believe that Putin is going to negotiate with the two countries. He was in Saudi Arabia before. Now he wants to go to Turkey to choose or propose a format for negotiations on Ukraine - either the Istanbul format, which has already been held, or the Jeddah summit that took place last August, hosted by Saudi Arabia, and to negotiate with Trump as the future president. It will be in November," Feygin explained.

According to him, if the US election suddenly ends in Trump's victory, the inauguration will take place on January 20, 2025 and Putin will be ready to hold talks with him.

"And Istanbul, Jeddah, or Riyadh could be the venue - it's the Global South, not Geneva, as it was with Biden. Putin is interested in the support of this idea from the Global South. The initiators of the Jeddah summit are Saudi Arabia and other countries. The Istanbul format was already in place in 2022, and Putin is now appealing to it, saying: you fools, you did not agree with us then," Feygin said.

The Russian opposition politician suggested that, in addition to other issues related to relations between Turkey and Moscow, Erdogan and Putin, the priority issue would be the resumption of negotiations on their platform on favourable terms for Putin.

"It seems to me that he is agreeing on this. Therefore, new negotiations are likely to be held on new grounds. And Moscow will conduct them differently. Putin was given a break for at least six months - he managed to create the notorious Surovikin's three-row defence line, minefields and a lot of other things. In this way, he created a favourable position for himself for negotiations. Therefore, he can now put pressure," Feygin said.

• On January 20, it became known that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was expecting the presidents of Russia and Iran to pay official visits to him. At the time, it was noted that Putin's arrival was scheduled for February 12.
• On January 29, the Kremlin stated that Ukraine would be one of the main topics of Putin's talks with Erdogan.
• On February 7, Russian leader Vladimir Putin postponed his visit to Turkey, which was scheduled for February 12.