ANKARA, May 12. /TASS/. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday he has never wanted to break relations with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, because of the United States’ policy toward Russia.

"I have never stopped contacts with Putin because, say, America has a negative attitude to Russia. On the contrary, I continued relations with him as actively as possible. Our trade and economic relations with Russia are much stronger than those we have with America. And we have prospects to develop them further," he said in an interview with local television channel.