MOSCOW. Feb 22 (Interfax) - Vladimir Zhirinovsky, the leader of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR) and its State Duma faction, claims that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told him Ankara was going to leave NATO in the future.
"I talked with President Erdogan - he personally told me that Turkey would leave NATO in the future," Zhirinovsky said at a Government Hour hearing at the Duma on Wednesday, which was attended by Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu.
Zhirinovsky said Russia, Turkey and Iran have now de facto formed a union, adding that he has spoken about the expediency of such a union for a long time.
In November 2016, Zhirinovsky visited Ankara in the company of a group of State Duma deputies and met with the president of Turkey on November 24. The party press service then said the meeting had addressed the deepening of Russian-Turkish relations. Specifically, Zhirinovsky spoke about the reasonableness of "a union of Russia and Turkey" and spoke for their unification in the fight against "Western provocations," and also to counter "the terrorists from ISIL (organization banned in Russia)" together.
Additionally, sources in the party said Zhirinovsky had drawn the following conclusion after that visit: "Turkey is now beginning to retreat from European politics, whose policies it does not like."