I think he was surprised by the international reaction to his attempted coup in the Ukraine. He considers the Ukraine to be part of Russia so he looks at it almost as an internal matter.
Umm,one error in the article.The largest buyer of Russian arms is China,India is at 2nd place.
...in Turkey, he accused the West of trying to force its vision of democracy on the former Soviet Union. He added that he was concerned that those who resist "will be punished with a truncheon made of bombs and missiles, as it was in Belgrade" - AP
For years, Russian investors have placed bids on Turkish electricity plants, oil refineries and LNG projects. But privatization in the 1990's was trumped by political instability in Ankara. As a bargaining tool, the Turkish side never tires of bringing up tanker traffic volume in the Bosphorus. Developing safer pipeline infrastructure is now in both parties' interest.
Russia, like Iran, cannot hide its distaste for the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline project. It bypasses both countries on its way from Caspian oilfields to the Mediterranean. BTC also places Anatolia, Turkey's sleepy inland, at the heart of world energy supply.
The Nabucco project, another pipeline route for natural gas deliveries, crosses Turkish territory on its way to Austria. If Nabucco gets the official go-ahead, a final feasibility report will be submitted by the end of this month and shipping contracts will be signed in early 2005.
Military weaponry, and not only Kalashnikovs, is an important aspect of Russian-Turkish trade. The Turkish air force has issued a $2.5 billion tender to acquire 145 attack helicopters. According to Moscow's business daily Kommersant, finalists included the "Ka-50-2 Erdogan," a Russian model produced specifically for the occasion. But Turkish authorities rejected it arguing it was partially manufactured in Israel.
In the meantime, another option surfaced as favorite: the "Pah-2 Tiger" proposed by EADS, a European consortium. Moscow has now made a counteroffer with the "Mi-28NE," or night hunter, a model produced in the industrial city of Rostov na Donu. Sales of amphibian planes for use in fire extinction were also part of the Agreement on Military-Technical Cooperation. - LINK
The Russian diplomat, who is responsible for relations with the OIC, said that dialogue with the community of 57 countries (an "Islamic mini-UN" of a kind) had become "more vigorous" recently and was "progressing on various levels". "It is very important that Russia has acquired the status of a guest in the OIC," he said, adding that Turkey will chair the Islamic community from January 2005. ITAR-TASS
Speaking about possible ways to remove anxiety in Russia's relations with Cyprus, Mr. Putin said that apart from actively developing relations between Moscow and Ankara, "there is, above all, one way which to remove all types of anxiety: it is to develop our relations with Greece as actively. Then, all anxiety will disappear."
According to the president, "we have very good relations with Greece, but our economic cooperation needs to be brought to the level of our political contacts.
"We should not decrease our economic cooperation with Turkey, but we must expand our economic contacts with Greece."
Speaking about Russian tourists in Greece, Mr. Putin cited Turkey as an example. "Two million Russian tourists" visited that country this year, he said. "That means that we hold second place after Germany in terms of visiting that country.
"Incidentally, it is rather difficult to enter Greece, and not through our own fault," Mr. Putin stressed. - December 23 (RIA Novosti)