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Turkish foreign minister says fluent in Russian enough to trade jokes with Putin

Besides Russian, Mevlut Cavusoglu can speak English, German and Japanese

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu EPA-EFE/YURI KOCHETKOV

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu

© EPA-EFE/YURI KOCHETKOV

ANKARA, March 13. /TASS/. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told students at Antalya’s Mediterranean University on Wednesday that not only does he speak Russian well enough, his Russian is so fluent that he exchanged jokes with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"I am trying to do foreign languages, once there is a chance. I have reached an intermediate level in Russian and can now exchange jokes with Putin," Cavusoglu said cited by T24 television channel.

Cavusoglu has been Turkey’s foreign minister since November 2015. He knows English, German and Japanese.

Among other meetings, Cavusoglu and Putin met at a Russia-Turkey-Iran summit on Syria in the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi on February 14. The Turkish foreign minister was in the delegation of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

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