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As Turkey heads to the crucial runoff vote on May 28, the Kremlin will be hoping for a convincing victory for incumbent president Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The Turkish election is being closely watched by the Kremlin, whose ties with Ankara have gained added significance amid the Ukraine war. The winner will have leverage over key areas for Moscow, such as Russia’s large-scale military campaign in Ukraine, the war in Syria and the Kremlin’s standoff with NATO. Erdogan, 69, who has ruled Turkey for two decades, won the first round earlier in May, even though polls showed him trailing his 74-year-old rival Kemal Kilicdaroglu. For the Kremlin, Erdogan is a known quantity who has collaborated closely with Russian President Vladimir Putin over the past 20 years, while Kilicdaroglu has recently blamed Moscow for meddling in the vote. #erdogan #turkey #putin #turkeyelection #kemalkılıçdaroğlu #russia #russiaukrainewar n18oc_world n18oc_crux 0:00 INTRODUCTION 1:
