Russia, Turkey agree on everything except tomatoes

Russia has agreed to lift all sanctions imposed on imported items from Turkey except tomatoes. 

The leaders of the two countries met at a meeting in Sochi on May 3, which comes at a time when the price of the vegetable has skyrocketed. 

Russian leader Vladimir Putin said Russia's embargo on the import of tomatoes from Turkey and its visa restrictions on Turkish nationals will remain in place for the time being.  He did not provide a date of when the two restrictions would be lifted. "Now we can say with certainty that the recovery period in Russo-Turkish relations is over," he said. 

"Of course, we want Turkish tomatoes on the Russian market. We suggest it because they are cheap and delicious," Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said, adding that there would be a transition process, and "perhaps interim solutions could be found in the meantime." 

Moscow imposed sanctions on Jan. 1, 2016, following the downing of a Russian war plane for violating Turkish air space. The incident touched off months of diplomatic tension that began abating with a normalization process last summer. 

The initial ban included imports of tomatoes, oranges, apples, apricots, cabbages, salt, broccoli, mandarin oranges, cucumbers, pears, peaches, plums, strawberries, onions, carnations and poultry. 

Thanks to the normalization of relations, the ban on oranges, mandarin oranges, apricots, peaches and plums was lifted on Oct. 9, 2016, by a government decision. 

But state-run Anadolu Agency calculated the annual loss of the items remaining on the ban list at $425 million as of March. In 2015, Turkey sold Russia nearly $259 million worth of tomatoes. 

Turkish Economy Minister Nihat Zeybekci joked during a Forum Istanbul...