Russian President Vladimir Putin is due in Turkey in early December for the fifth annual meeting of the High Level Cooperation Council, which the two countries established in 2010. He plans to use his visit to “open up new horizons and take bilateral relations even further,” to use his words. Putin made this remark while accepting a letter earlier this week from Turkey’s newly appointed ambassador to Moscow, Umit Yardim.

Given the warmth reflected by Putin during the Kremlin ceremony, when he also underlined his extremely close dialogue with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, one would not be amiss in assuming that all is well in Turkish-Russian ties.

It is Erdogan himself, however, who not so long ago underlined that this was not necessarily the case, especially when it came to Syria.

“Unfortunately, we disagree with Russia over the Syria issue. We have talked about this many times, but we have wasted time, despite our meetings. Russia continues to support [the Syrian regime],” Erdogan told reporters when he was flying back to Turkey from an Oct. 25 visit to Estonia.