In the photos, columns of tanker trucks can be seen which are purportedly loading oil at installations controlled by Daesh in Syria and Iraq, before entering neighboring Turkey.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has called the downing a “planned provocation” and “stab in the back” by Ankara, accused Turkey on Monday of shooting down the plane to protect oil supply lines with the Islamic State.
Anatoly Antonov, the Deputy Russian Defence Minister, told a news conference: “Turkey is the principal consumer of this oil, stolen from its legitimate owners, Syria and Iraq”.
Antonov alleges the country’s top political leadership, including President Erdogan and his family, is involved in the illegal business.
However, he says, Russian Federation presented no evidence that Erdogan and his family were involved in such trade.
Islamic State earn about $2 billion annually from illegal oil sales and is spending it on recruiting militants to its cause as well as “weapons, equipment and armament”, Antonov said. “Our goal and the goal that we urge you for, ladies and gentlemen, is to block sources of terrorist funding in a joint effort”, Antonov said.
But no evidence of Mr. Erdoğan’s involvement has been produced, and the Turkish president adamantly denies this accusation.
Another main route for smuggled oil, according to the ministry, runs from Deir Ez-zour in Syria to the Syrian border crossing at Al-Qamishli.
“Nobody in the Western world is questioning the fact that the Turkish President’s son is the head of one of the biggest energy companies and his son-in-law is now the Minister of Energy”, added the Russian minister.
The US has earlier suspected that middlemen in Turkey have been buying oil from IS territories.
Tensions are rising between the two major players in Syria’s civil war since Turkey downed a Russian warplane last week near its border with Syria.
“We never said oil smuggling from ISIL is not a problem”, he said, using an alternative acronym for IS.
Mr Obama said he did not expect a quick reversal of Mr Putin’s strategy in Syria, but Moscow may eventually align itself with the US-led coalition fighting ISIS.
But the defence ministry accusations against Erdogan are the first implicating the Turkish leader directly, as the Kremlin refuses to let the pressure drop after slapping economic sanctions on Ankara.
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Erdogan strongly rejected the allegation, vowing to resign if Russian Federation can prove it is true that Turkey – let alone Erdogan and his family – engages in trade with the self-proclaimed Islamic State. Lt.-Gen. Sergei Rudskoi of the Russian military’s General Staff said Russian airstrikes on the IS oil infrastructure in Syria had halved the militants’ profits.
