President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday lifted restrictions on travel to Turkey after mending ties with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan, seven months after Ankara downed a Russian jet, triggering a raft of sanctions.

President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday lifted restrictions on travel to Turkey after mending ties with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan, seven months after Ankara downed a Russian jet, triggering a raft of sanctions.

Following his first call with Erdogan since the incident, Putin announced that Moscow's ban on charter flights and package tours to Turkey would be lifted and that government would also look at ending an embargo on some Turkish food products.

"I want to start with the question of tourism... we are lifting the administrative restrictions in this area," Putin told government ministers in televised comments.

"I ask that the Russian government begin the process of normalizing general trade and economic ties with Turkey," he said.

Moscow-Ankara ties strained last November after Turkey shot down a Russian Sukhoi Su-24 aircraft with two pilots aboard, claiming the fighter jet had repeatedly violated the Turkish airspace.

Following the incident, Moscow imposed a number of sanctions on Ankara, including import restriction on Turkish foods, a ban on tourist travel to Turkey, an embargo on hiring Turkish citizens in Russia, and a ban on Turkish organizations' activities in Russia.

On Monday, Kremlin said that the Turkish President apologized to Putin over Ankara’s shooting down of the Russian jet.

According to Kremlin, Erdogan expressed his desire “to resolve the situation connected to the downing of a Russian military aircraft."

Turkey, however, later said that it had only expressed regrets to Russia, denying reports of an apology, and retracted a compensation pledge.