Russian plane was downed to secure oil deliveries ---Putin
The Russian president raised the topic of Russia's Sukhoi
Su-24M downed by Turkey at his meetings with foreign leaders in Paris.
Everybody agreed there was no need to shoot the jet down.
"As for the downed Russian jet, of course I raised that
theme at all the bilateral meetings which I had. I gave relevant explanations
about what had happened. All the colleagues listened very attentively and most
of them at least share the opinion that there had been no need to attack the unprotected
Russian bomber, which was of no threat to Turkey," Putin told journalists, reports Tass.
The Russian president pointed out that Russia has grounds to
suspect that the aircraft was downed to secure illegal oil deliveries from
Syria to Turkey. The official noted that terrorists use visa-free traveling
between Turkey and Russia for moving across the border.
Answering a question on whether Moscow wants to form a broad
anti-terrorist coalition, Putin said: "We always supported this."
"However, this cannot be done while someone continues
to use several terrorist organizations to reach their immediate goals," he
added.
The Russian president stressed that financial support to
terrorists in Syria continues. "We have recently received additional
reports that confirm that that oil from ISIL-controlled [Islamic State of Iraq
and the Levant - former name of the Islamic State terrorist organization]
territories is delivered to the territory of Turkey on an industrial
scale," Putin noted.
Putin didn't hold a meeting with Turkish President Recep
Tayyip Erdogan at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Le Bourget.
"We did not hold a meeting with the Turkish
president," Putin told journalists on Monday.
Putin however also admitted being saddened by worsening
Russian-Turkish relations.
"I think we're all saddened and I personally am
saddened because I myself did quite a lot for a buildup of these relations for
quite some time," Putin told reporters.
"But problems do exist and they emerged a long enough
time ago and we have been trying to resolve them in dialogue with our Turkish
partners."
An F-16 fighter jet of the Turkish Air Force brought
Russia’s Su-24M frontline bomber down in the morning of Tuesday, November 24.
Turkish defence officials claimed the Russian crew had intruded into Turkish
airspace in the area of the Syrian-Turkish land-surface border.
However, the Russian Defense Ministry says the Su-24M was
flying over the Syrian territory and there was now intrusion in Turkish
airspace.
The crew - Lt Col Oleg Peshkov and Capt Konstantin Murakhtin
managed to eject themselves from the aircraft but Lt Col Peshkov was killed in
midair by gunfire opened by militants from among the ethnic Turkomans.
The search and rescue operation involved two Mi-8
helicopters. One of them was damaged by gunfire and made a forced landing.
A contract marine serviceman died in the incident while the
rest of the search party was evacuated to a safe place. The damaged helicopter
was destroyed later by mortar fire from a land area controlled by militants.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said, speaking at the
ceremony of the presentation of credentials by new foreign ambassadors on
Thursday that Turkey was steering the relations into the gridlock as it neither
apologized, nor offered to repair the damage, nor promised to punish those
responsible. "We have not heard yet apologies from the highest political
level of Turkey. Nor do we hear proposals to repair the damage or promises to
punish the perpetrators for the committed crime," Putin said. "One
gets the impression that the Turkish leadership is steering deliberately the
Russian-Turkish relations into the dead end, which is regrettable," he
added.
In an interview with CNN, Erdogan warned Moscow that Turkey
would take steps if its warplane were downed by the Russian S-400 missile
system in case it violated the Syrian airspace. "I think if there is a
party that needs to apologize, it is not us," he said.
"Those who violated our airspace are the ones who need
to apologize."
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