Your task is to extract the thesis of an opinionated news article by selecting some of its text segments. The thesis is a summarization of what the author wants to persuade the reader of. Your answer should consist of segments of the given text. Note that you are not allowed to combine different sentences.

Q: Putin and Erdogan: Partnership of convenience? The fate of the multibillion dollar project had been up in the air for a few months . Breaching EU competition rules, the pipeline project could have gone through if it had allowed access to suppliers other than Gazprom . The crisis in Ukraine and the mounting tensions gave EU policymakers an additional reason not to accommodate Russia's demands for special treatment . As a result, Putin declared that resources will be directed towards upgrading gas pipeline infrastructure linking Russia to Turkey - or even building an altogether new pipeline, in an attempt to save face and offset the losses incurred over South Stream . This decision underscores the pragmatism in the way Moscow and Ankara deal with each other . Meetings and official phone conversations between Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, more than 35 over the past few years, usually follow a very similar script . The two leaders agree to disagree on the ongoing human tragedy in Syria, where they sit on opposing sides, and proceed with bilateral business . This time around, they made the usual pledge to triple the volume of trade between the two countries from the current figure of $33bn to $100bn by the end of this decade . That might be an ambitious target but one should not forget that Russia is already Turkey's second largest trading partner after Germany . It is, furthermore, the second biggest market for Russian gas exports outside the former Soviet Union, with Germany again the frontrunner . Turkish construction firms have carved out a niche in the Russian market , benefiting handsomely from large public-funded project such as the Sochi Winter Olympics . This explains why Erdogan was deaf to calls for Turks of Circassian origin to boycott the games , which were set in the part of the Caucasus they were uprooted from back in the 1860s . Currently, there is a problem with gas deliveries over the Trans-Balkan pipeline to western Turkey via Ukraine, Moldova, Romania and Bulgaria , because of disruptions due to the constant wrangling between Gazprom and Ukraine's Naftohaz . If the winter is harsh , heating in Istanbul and other large cities in the Marmara region will suffer . That is not a welcome prospect for the Turkish government , which is heading for general elections in the first half of 2015 and is therefore determined to avoid such unpleasant shocks and also keep gas prices low . High-ranking Russian representatives, including Gazprom's CEO Alexei Miller, who was in Ankara last week, promise to step up volumes through the Blue Stream, the pipeline connecting the Russian grid to central Anatolia via the Black Sea, and reach a total of 30 billion cubic metres in 2014, from 25.6 billion cubic metres the previous year . In this context, it makes perfect sense that investment should be redirected from the botched South Stream project to the upgrade of Blue Stream . In the long run, Ankara would also like to move away from dependence on Russia and tap into new gas flowing from Azerbaijan - via the Trans Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) coming onstream in 2019 - Northern Iraq, Iran and, should a solution be reached on the Cyprus Issue, the Eastern Mediterranean . The AKP government has helped decrease imports from Russia to 57 percent of the overall volume , but in absolute terms, consumption in an expanding economy like Turkey's is only going higher . Luckily, the plummeting prices of oil have come as a huge bonus to the government , reducing Turkey's bill and improving the balance of payments vis-a-vis Russia . What Turkey is offering in exchange is neutrality in Putin's confrontation with the West . Ankara has a lot of reasons to be unhappy about the annexation of Crimea, home to a large Tatar community which views Turkey as a kin state, and about the frozen conflict in Eastern Ukraine . Yet ,  unlike all other members of NATO, it has declined to join the sanctions imposed on Russia (imports of Turkish poultry and seafood have rocketed since) . The strategic value of Turkey's neutrality has only gone up after Putin found himself shouldered aside by most emerging powers at the recent G20 summit in Brisbane, Australia . Russia has long encouraged Turkey's pursuit of an autonomous foreign policy and emancipation from NATO and the US . As the Turkish city of Antalya hosts the next G20 summit , there will be a renewed emphasis on Turkey's transformation into a global leader rather than a pliant western periphery . But geopolitical gains may not give Russia sufficient incentive to accommodate Turkish demands . Putin came with a delegation of 10 government ministers and a shopping list too . He would like to see progress on Rosatom's $20bn project to build Turkey's first nuclear power station at Akkuyu near Mersin . Construction work is expected to start in May , but reportedly Putin has insisted on a preferential treatment for the Russian state company by the Turkish tax authorities . It seems, however , that Erdogan has held his ground this time around and Rosatom has not obtained what it wanted . Though Putin's visit will be remembered for the South Stream announcement , what is most remarkable about it is the continued development of Russian- Turkish relations, amid mounting tensions between Putin and the West .

A: The crisis in Ukraine and the mounting tensions gave EU policymakers an additional reason not to accommodate Russia's demands for special treatment
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Q: Zero suicides is an admirable aim but it requires all-out change. On Monday, Nick Clegg pledged to sign up the NHS to a national "zero suicide" campaign . This comes in a week when I have spent a lot of time talking to the media about depression in an attempt to get people to support Calm and the other charities that are doing incredible work to help people coping with mental illness . I have appeared on national radio, in the press and on television to talk about my story , but the more coverage I get, the more I ask: why me? Let me make this clear . I am not famous , I am not trying to be famous . I am a normal lad who made mistakes, lived a lie, and eventually attempted to take my own life . I am just another statistic . Someone who suffered from an illness that took over my life and made me a person I didn't recognise . There is absolutely nothing special or unique about me . Yet I am getting calls from people asking me to share my story . The fact that I am newsworthy, simply because I have spoken openly about the demons I was facing, makes me think that we are being greatly let down by society . Suicide is the biggest single killer of men aged 20-49 in the UK . It's a statistic that, no matter how many times I say it, continues to shock me to the core . Yet it's something that few people seem to be talking about openly, if at all . I get it, we're British . Sometimes we don't like talking about things that make us uncomfortable . Sometimes we'd rather not ask the question because we can't handle the answer . But that simply cannot continue . It's time that people are made to stand up and face the harsh reality . The fear of being judged is preventing people from talking about their secret turmoil . There is very little being done by the people who have the biggest influence to remove those fears, remove the stigmas, to get people talking about mental health, and make people comfortable with the subject . The media doesn't just have influence, it has a responsibility to help communicate a message and set an agenda . Yes, things are changing , but it can't be right that the furthest we've come is having someone receive live therapy on air with Phillip Schofield or a soap character crashing a minibus . There is too much box-ticking going on . A petition signed, a campaign joined, an empty promise in an election year . All very good but what do they actually do? Do they help save enough lives? The system needs changing from top to bottom . There is no consistency or urgency, despite the high rate of men dying from suicide . What bigger wake-up call do you need? I would ask David Cameron to speak up and tell us what he is going to do . To meet me, to let me introduce him to the small team at Calm, the volunteers, the campaigners, the people on the end of phones with someone's life in their hands . Let me show him people who feel as if they have nowhere to turn . Let me show him the lack of knowledge of some people working in GP surgeries, and the pressure that those who make a positive difference are working under, as rates of mental illness increase continually . Let me show how so little can make such a big difference . If Nick Clegg is serious about mental health then he needs to show it . It's great that he has decided that we need to aim for zero suicides but I wonder, what was the aim before this? Just a few suicides? A hundred? Shouldn't the aim always have been zero? The likes of Calm, Mind, The Samaritans and everyone else, are doing incredible work but it shouldn't be left to them to do it all alone . They can only work with the limited resources they have . They need supporting and backing . We need to put faces and voices to genuine experiences . Speaking out about dealing with depression shouldn't be considered a "brave" act ; it shouldn't be an extraordinary or unusual story to read . It should be common . It should be accepted . It should be normal . But while we live in a society that doesn't know how to deal with it, and perhaps does not want to deal with it, we cannot expect people to talk openly about such private matters . Much focus is placed on those who are suffering , and rightly so , but in order to truly help them, we need to make everyone else comfortable and knowledgeable enough to know what to do, how to act, and know how to signpost people to the help that is out there . We need to be talking about mental illness in schools . We need to make in-depth training compulsory in the workplace . We need to be training taxi drivers, bar staff, hairdressers - people who will find out more about a person through a casual conversation than their friends will ever know . We need to normalise talking about the realities of depression, to normalise conversations about the very real prospect of suicide - it is the only way we can move forward together . We need a radical change from top to bottom . Therapy isn't just about lying on a couch while someone writes down your childhood memories . It's about feeling comfortable enough to say you're not OK .

A: On Monday, Nick Clegg pledged to sign up the NHS to a national "zero suicide" campaign
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Q: Yes, too many of us are in pointless jobs - but don't despair. In his usual prescient fashion, Guy Debord once lamented that "young people everywhere have been allowed to choose between love and a garbage disposal unit . Everywhere they have chosen the garbage disposal unit." The Situationists' vision of the future was not, as I'm sure you've guessed, an optimistic one , but it's nice to see that their spirit is alive and well on the London underground . "How can one even begin to speak of dignity in labour when one secretly feels that one's job should not exist?" a poster asks , as part of a campaign called #bullshitjobs devised by the anarchist magazine Strike! Another poster reads:"The moral and spiritual damage that comes from the situation is profound . It is a scar on our collective soul . Virtually no one talks about it." And a third:"It's as if someone were out there making up pointless jobs for the sake of keeping us all working." Just what every commuter needs on their first day back at work, you might think . But I love these subvertisements, mainly because they are right . No one talks about the soul-crushing sadness experienced by the chronically exhausted and unfulfilled hordes . Forget the garbage disposal : we're in urgent need of an army of pooper-scooper-wielding refuseniks , because bullshit jobs are everywhere . Of course , complaining about any of this or doing something as daring as opting out finds you guilty of the most conspicuous of crimes against capitalism: laziness . Or a suspicious lack of ambition, resulting in the label of "scrounger" if you're working class and that of "pampered entitled millennial with no moral backbone" if you're middle class . But don't despair : humans have an incredible capacity for survival . There are ways to endure the pointlessly mundane jobs that many of us do . Here are my tips :. One of the most level-headed people I know sets very little store in his job when it comes to defining himself as a human being . Instead ,  it's the things he does outside of work that he regards as his main means of personal fulfilment . Guy Debord regarded maximum pleasure as the central aim of any revolution , so start your own personal one, via music or reading or sex or anything that you enjoy doing creatively . Then pour your soul into these activities instead of thinking about work . If you can do one of these activities during working hours , even better . Not people who use the word "facetime" as a way of describing hanging out, or talk about things "going forward" . These people will be first up against the wall . I mean family and friends, people you love . Love is the answer (actually, anaesthetising yourself with drink and drugs is the answer , but unfortunately it's less slimming) . This sounds flippant but can actually be an effective means of delaying job- induced madness . A friend who worked stacking shelves in Tesco overnight was able to keep his sanity by pretending he was playing a game of foodstuff-sized Tetris . In a similar vein, you could see how many Cradle of Filth lyrics you can subtly weave into your customer service emails, wreak subtle psychological havoc upon your colleagues, or, if you're a hairdresser , deliberately give everyone terrible haircuts for your own amusement (my hairdresser has been doing this for years) . The biggest modern lie is the one told by the Steve Jobses of this world : that, career-wise, we must do what we love in order to experience true happiness . It's a lovely thought but, unfortunately for the generation sold this nonsense by idealistic baby-boomers, a fulfilling job is a luxury, not a given . Instead , as some means of twisted compensation, we're offered slave wages, zero-hours contracts and made-up job titles . But as depressing as things look, it's important to keep hold of those youthful aspirations and harness them , if not for financial profit, then for sanity's sake . It's exhausting , I know, especially as in Britain we work the longest hours in Europe . You are right to be furious . We all are . In the words of the retro anarchist-punk soundbite dusted off by Russell Brand:"Let's have a revolution, yeah?" (At least after a short nap .) Let's continue to campaign for better and more flexible working hours, wages that people can actually survive on, and freedom from harassment and exploitation . Let's vote . Let's join our unions . Let's take the bastards to tribunal (whoops, no legal aid) . Because if you're going to do a bullshit job , you might as well get what you can out of it .

A:
In a similar vein, you could see how many Cradle of Filth lyrics you can subtly weave into your customer service emails, wreak subtle psychological havoc upon your colleagues, or, if you're a hairdresser The biggest modern lie is the one told by the Steve Jobses of this world
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