You're reading: RFE/RL: Russian, Turkish foreign ministers to meet following Russian ambassador’s killing

RFE/RL: Russian, Turkish foreign ministers to meet following Russian ambassador’s killing

Published Dec. 20, 2016 at 1:43 pm

Russian President Vladimir Putin (2nd L) speaks with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov (L), director of the Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) Sergei Naryshkin (R) and Alexander Bortnikov (2nd R), director of the Federal Security Service (FSB), during a meeting at the Kremlin in Moscow on Dec. 19, 2016, few hours after the Russian ambassador to Ankara was shot dead by a gunman during an attack at an art exhibition in Ankara.A gunman crying "Aleppo" and "revenge" shot Russian ambassador Andrei Karlov while he was visiting an art exhibition in Ankara on December 19, witnesses and media reports said. The Turkish state-run Anadolu news agency said the gunman had been "neutralised" in a police operation, without giving further details.

Photo by AFP

The foreign ministers of Russia, Turkey, and Iran are set to meet in Moscow over Syria, a day after the assassination of the Russian ambassador in Turkey, which Moscow and Ankara say was aimed at derailing the talks.

Ahead of the three-way meeting on Dec. 20, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his Turkish counterpart, Mevlut Cavusgolu, jointly told reporters in Moscow that they saw the attack in Ankara as intended to derail the improving ties between the two countries.