Moscow struck back economically after the plane was shot down, banning the import of some Turkish goods, imposing restrictions on travel and planning to stop some Turkish companies doing business in Russia, CNNMoney reported.
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The Russian Defence Ministry revealed that one of its warships had been forced to fire warning shots at a Turkish vessel in the Aegean Sea.
The incident is likely to heighten tensions between the two nations who are at odds over Syria and Turkey’s downing of a Russian warplane last month. Russian President Vladimir Putin, who called the downing of the plane.
A ministry statement says the guided missile destroyer Smetlivy was unable to establish radio Sunday with the approaching Turkish seiner, which also failed to respond to visual signals and flares.
Moscow said the crew had to fire small arms in the direction of the boat at “a guaranteed survivability distance” when the two vessels were about 600 metres apart “to prevent the collision of the ships”. Over the weekend, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu warned that Turkey is growing impatient with Russian provocations.
“We are not on the side of escalating tension, we are on the side of de-escalating tense situations through dialogue”, Cavusoglu said, according to the DHA news agency.
“We were not aware that they had fired shots at us”, Muzaffer Gecici said.
The captain of the Turkish boat said he was unaware that his vessel had been shot at. “There is no such thing”.
With Ankara refusing absolutely to withdraw its forces, there is every indication that Iraq is becoming a new venue for the multi-sided proxy war being fought between the U.S. and Russian Federation on the other side of the border. “We didn’t realise we had been fired at”, Muzaffer Gecici said.
The Turkish military attache was summoned to the Kremlin over the incident involving the destroyer Smetlivy.
‘I order you to act in the toughest way, ‘ Putin said.
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The incident badly strained the relations between Moscow and Ankara.
