MOSCOW, December 19, /TASS/. The leaders of Russia and Turkey are in constant contact, President Vladimir Putin said at the combined Direct Line Q&A and year-end press conference.

"We are in constant contact with [Turkish] President [Recep Tayyip] Erdogan. I cannot remember when we last spoke with him, but we certainly discussed the situation in the region, in the Middle East," Putin recalled.

The Russian leader emphasized that the Turkish president's attitude to the events in the Middle East is well known to everyone, as is Russia's position. "Our position is not subject to any current conjuncture. We have always believed and still believe that the Palestinian problem can be solved only by eliminating the causes of its emergence," the president said. He recalled that the UN Security Council once decided that two states - Israel and Palestine - should be created. "Israel has been created, but Palestine has not yet been created. That is the problem," Putin noted.