MOSCOW, August 2. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan are currently holding telephone talks for the first time in five weeks, Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday.

"The conversation is currently underway," Peskov told journalists adding that "we [the Kremlin] will proceed as usual coming up later with an official statement [after the talks]."

This is their first telephone conversation after a number of major events, including the termination of the grain deal and Ankara’s decision to transfer leaders of the Azov nationalist battalion (deemed a terrorist organization and outlawed in Russia) to Ukraine.

The Russian leader first announced his plans to talk to Erdogan by phone on July 29, during a media briefing to sum up the results of the Russia-Africa summit.

According to the Russian president, the two leaders were planning to talk to each other at an earlier date, but failed to find a convenient time, eventually setting the conversation for August 2. Kremlin Spokesman Peskov confirmed the plans on Monday.