Before the beginning of Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul’s Moscow visit, Russian Foreign ministry spokesman Alexander Yakovenko said that , having 500 years of a neighborhood relationship, Turkey should be closer to Russia.

Yakovenko said Gul would be welcomed in Moscow not as a rival, but as an official of a country that has objectives. The Grand Kremlin Palace would apply a different protocol in this visit and although they are not equals in rank, Gul would be received by Russian President Vladimir Putin.