Russia's Quiet Second-Track Diplomacy and Turkey's Citizenship Purge

Former officials from UK, France, Germany, and Russia met last month in an unofficial channel—while Ankara revokes thousands of passports.

Russia's Quiet Second-Track Diplomacy and Turkey's Citizenship Purge — Last month, former UK National Security Adviser Tim Barrow joined former German State Secretary Markus Ederer and French diplomat Pierre Vimont in a closed round of talks with former high-ranking Russian officials. No country has given official confirmation of the meeting, but such "second track" diplomacy—without official mandate yet able to convey ideas to current authorities—has become a quiet fixture of the current moment.[^1] The talks come as the Kremlin faces what one analysis calls its worst times, and as a massive Russian attack on the night of August 5 killed 17 people and wounded 44 in Ukraine, exposing the growing vulnerability of Kyiv's air defenses.[^2] The second-track channel is not the only unofficial signal moving between capitals. In July, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev reported a meeting between representatives of Germany and Russia on the country's territory. The pattern suggests a willingness to test ideas outside formal diplomatic lanes, even as official channels remain frozen.[^1] The contrast is stark: while former officials trade ideas, the US Treasury today removed Iraqi airline Fly Baghdad and two of its aircraft from its sanctions list, and the White House insists it faces no munitions shortage even as reports claim nearly the entire stockpile of long-range precision missiles ATACMS and PrSM has been expended in the campaign against Iran.[^3][^4] In Ankara, the state is moving in the opposite direction—toward revocation rather than outreach. Turkey has announced the revocation of citizenship for 6,134 foreigners following fictitious real estate transactions, valuation fraud, and security concerns. Investigation data shows 1,150 citizenship applicants obtained eligibility certificates through sham transactions, leading to revocation for 5,391 people including family members; another 263 applicants and relatives were identified as security risks, costing 743 more their citizenship. Since mid-February, an additional 1,358 have been stripped.[^5] The move tightens a program that once drew investors, and the article does not examine the broader implications for T