During a joint press conference with French President Francois Hollande, Putin said corruption must be behind the large-scale oil importation, urging a thorough investigation.
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Erdogan’s expression of regret Saturday was the first since Tuesday’s incident in which Turkish F-16 jets shot down the Russian jet on grounds that it had violated Turkey’s airspace despite repeated warnings to change course.
But Moscow officially responded coolly, saying Turkey has yet to apologise for shooting down the jet on the Syrian border.
President Vladimir Putin has also ordered the deployment of the long-range S-400 air defense missile systems to a Russian air base in Syria just 30 miles south of the border with Turkey to help protect Russian warplanes, and the Russian military warned that it would shoot down any aerial target that would pose a potential threat to its planes. Details of Turkish goods that will be banned and other measures under the decree are expected to be announced in coming days. Erdogan refused to apologize for the plane’s downing, which Ankara said came after it flew for 17 seconds into Turkish airspace.
Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutgolu said Sunday that Peshkov’s body had arrived in Turkey overnight, but gave no further details of how it was recovered or brought across the border.
Turkey, as well as the West, do not see Assad as the country’s legitimate authority, and support militant groups in Syria fighting to oust the president.
Meanwhile, Putin has called on Turkey to investigate allegations of oil being imported to the country from the Syrian regions now controlled by So-called Islamic State terror group. Russian Federation has been launching airstrikes against terrorist positions in Syria at Assad’s request since September. One Russian soldier was killed in a rescue operation.
“Russian planes should never be shot down”.
This decree also prohibits the import of certain goods from Turkey.
This measure partially suspends the “visa-free” travel process the countries have had, mandates that Russian travel agencies stop selling tours to Turkey for next year and bans charter transportation between the nations, according to state-run Sputnik news. The directive is part of a decree that aims to boost Russia’s national security.
“From our point of view it is now hard to determine the level of predictability in the actions of the Turkish leadership” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in an interview released Saturday.
“And Turkey, after every bombardment, (is) receiving more and more – tens of thousands of refugees from Syria”, Davutoglu added.
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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Saturday that his government is “really saddened” about shooting down a Russian warplane, insisting that he does not want to ramp up tensions but falling short of offering the apology Moscow has demanded.
