frankj1 wrote:I am interested in what you mean...mind elaborating?
Thanks
Well, Turkey is one of Russia's Southern neighbors as it shares a costal border across the sea. Seems like it would be a prime holding for Russia because it would sever the land route to the middle east from Europe and the Russians could leverage fuel and passage.
Additionally the Church of Constantinople still exists in Istanbul; it's the seat governing seat of all Orthodox Christianity much like the Vatican is for Roman Catholics. With Putin's strong religious ties, it would be the gem of his acheivements for Russia to say it is in possession of one of the most Holy sites in Christianity. A bit of the Crimean incident had to do with Orthodox Christians feeling under represented while a good number of Ukrain's population is Roman Catholic.
It really seems like there's a tactical advantage for Russia to own Turkey just from a supply side perspective but I might be wrong.