Kremlin-No Decision Yet On Whether To Visit Turkey

Wires reporting comments from Kremlin spox Dmitri Peskov. States that 'no decision has been made' on whether President Vladimir Putin will visit Turkey in April. Earlier today, Turkey's Hurriyet reported that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had invited Putin to the inauguration ceremony of the Russian-built Akkuyu nuclear power plant (see 0829BST bullet).

• Like other nations that Putin could visit in the coming weeks or months (India, China), Turkey is not a signatory of the Rome Statute, and therefore not under an obligation to detain Putin under the arrest warrant issued earlier in the month by the International Criminal Court.
• Separately, the Kremlin states that the detention of WSJ reporter Evan Gershkovich in Moscow for espionage (see 0905BST bullet) is 'a matter for the FSB [the security services].' Adds that 'as far as we know [the reporter] was caught red-handed.'
• Gershkovich is the first reporter for a US news outlet detained on spying charges in Russia since the collapse of the Soviet Union.