But Moscow says the plane was over Syria when it was downed and never entered Turkey’s airspace.
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Turkey shot down a Russian Su-24 bomber on Tuesday, saying it crossed into its airspace from Syria despite repeated warnings. Russian Federation has at least 32 fixed-wing aircraft and 16 helicopters at the Khmeimim air base near Latakia, an Assad stronghold on the Mediterranean Sea just 50 kilometres from the Turkish border.
“After such tragic events like the destruction of our plane and the death of our pilot, this is a necessary measure”, Putin said in a televised address on Wednesday morning. The Defence Ministry said earlier on Wednesday that Russian Federation would send an S-400 system to the base.
Turkey has informed the United Nations that two Russian planes disregarded warnings and violated Turkish airspace “to a depth of 1.36 miles and 1.15 miles in length for 17 seconds”.
In Moscow, protesters pelted the Turkish Embassy with eggs and stones.
The remarks came as Moscow tightened control on the import of Turkish goods and threatened widespread economic retaliation in the wake of a Russian bomber being shot down by Turkish jets and Turkey refused to apologize for the incident.
“We have serious doubts about this being an unpremeditated act, it really looks like a planned provocation”, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters after speaking to Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu by phone in the first contact between the two over the incident.
Russia’s president also stated that it appears as if Ankara is seeking to drive the Russian-Turkish relations to a standstill.
Navigator Konstantin Murakhtin was rescued by Russian and Syrian special forces after ejecting from the plane but the pilot was shot dead by rebels as he parachuted to the ground.
Following an extraordinary meeting of the alliance called by Ankara, Nato chief Jens Stoltenberg urged both sides to try to calm the crisis between the two rival players in the Syrian conflict.
Putin didn’t threaten a military response against Turkey, though he could strike at Turkish interests indirectly.
Turkey had protested that Russia’s campaign was aimed at hitting Syrian rebels and buttressing the Assad regime rather than hurting IS jihadists.
Speaking at a meeting of the Organisation of Islamic Co-operation in Istanbul, he said his country wanted “peace, dialogue and diplomacy”. But he reiterated that Moscow has no intention of fighting a war with Turkey over the incident. He said Ankara argued in that case that a brief incursion wasn’t reason to shoot down its jet.
But he defended his country’s move to shoot down the plane, saying “no one should expect Turkey to stay silent to border violations or the violation of its rights”, the Associated Press reported.
Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu also sought to ease tensions, calling Russia Turkey’s “friend and neighbour” and insisting relations can not be “sacrificed to accidents of communication”. He also pointed at routine violations of Greece’s airspace by Turkish combat planes.
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Turkey’s president has rejected Russian allegations that his country purchases oil products from the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group. He told his party’s lawmakers that Turkey didn’t know the nationality of the plane brought down Tuesday until Moscow announced it was Russian.
