“We remember that the militants who operated in the North Caucasus in the 1990s and 2000s found refuge and received moral and material assistance in Turkey”, Putin said at the annual state of the nation address in Moscow.
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Putin began his presentation by asking for a moment’s silence to honor the memory of Russian servicemen killed in Syria, where Russia is conducting airstrikes in support of President Bashar al-Assad against Islamic State and other groups.
Turkey said it shot down the plane after it violated its airspace for 17 seconds despite repeated warnings, while Russian Federation has insisted that the aircraft has stayed in Syria’s airspace.
Russian Federation has already banned some Turkish food imports, including selected fruit and vegetables, as part of a wider retaliatory sanctions package.
“We know who in Turkey are filling their pockets and allow terrorists to earn money by selling oil stolen from Syria”, he said in his annual state of the nation address.
Sharply raising the stakes in Moscow’s spat with Ankara, Russia’s top military brass on Wednesday accused Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his family of personally profiting from oil trade with Islamic State militants.
“We are not planning to engage in military saber-rattling”, Putin told an audience in the Kremlin.
“We will be reminding [them] again about what they’ve done and they’ll be regretting it – we know what to do”, he added.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Wednesday that he would agree to meet with his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu on the sidelines of an Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe meeting of foreign ministers in Belgrade, the Serbian capital.
Currently, there are no signs of any rapid recuperation of the ties between the two countries.
Moscow’s Ministry of Defence released satellite images which they claimed show columns of tanker trucks loading with oil at an installation controlled by Isis in Syria, before crossing the border back into Turkey.
No evidence that Erdogan or any member of his family has been involved in trading IS oil was presented at the news conference.
“Only Allah, most likely, knows why they did this”.
The damage to the prestige of Russian arms underscores the Kremlin’s broader reading of its situation with Turkey, which is that Erdogan has challenged Putin’s imperial quest. The widows of the marine and pilot killed after Turkey shot the plane down were in the audience.
“As long as the Syrian regime exists, it means there will be a place for terrorist circles to develop in Syria”, he said.
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“Putin’s harsh statement, which provoked rather harsh remarks from the Turks, is capable of burning bridges with each other for years”, said Isayev, who believes Russian-Turkish relations will now wither. This is the first time such an upgrade is performed on the Su-34 fighters, while Moscow plans to test the missiles in Syrian airspace.
