Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will head to Russia today to meet with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin. Earlier, Erdogan said in an interview with Russia's TASS news agency that his visit to St. Petersburg would open what he called as a "new page" in bilateral relations.

"I see this visit as a new beginning, a new page in relations between the two countries. Russia is the most important actor in bringing peace to Syria," Erdogan said.

"I believe that Russia and Turkey should solve this problem by taking joint steps. Turkey, which shares a large border with Syria, can cooperate with Russia and we can take a step without disrupting Syria's territorial integrity. "

Moscow said the Putin and Erdogan will discuss resuming Turkish food export to Russia. Moscow said it is planning to eliminate economic sanctions on Ankara by stages. But Russia said the meeting will not result in signing of any agreements.

The meeting will also discuss compensation over Turkey's downing of a Russian fighter jet, which happened near the Syrian border last November.

Erdogan's meeting with Putin will be only his second with a foreign head of state since last month's failed military coup. Last week, Erdogan met with his visiting Kazakh counterpart in Ankara.