Addressing an annual news conference in Moscow, Putin said Russian Federation was cooperating with the United States over Syria. “Let them fly there now”, he said, pointing out that Russia’s most advanced air-defense system, the S-400, is covering all of Syria. “That is joint work on a constitution, creation of oversight mechanisms for a future democratic election, the election itself, and recognition of its results”.
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Mr Putin described the shooting down of the jet as “an act of enmity” and said he did not understand why it happened.
“Only the Syrian people can determine who should govern them and under what standards, what rules”, Putin said.
Donald Trump speaks in the Republican presidential debate hosted by CNN in Las Vegas on December 15, …
“We did not start a war in Syria”, said Putin.
At the same time, he adds that Russian Federation has cooperated with Saudi Arabia despite their differences on the Syrian crisis.
He said that he was unsure whether Russian Federation needs a permanent military base in Syria.
UPDATE: 7:25 a.m. EST – The February killing of Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov should be investigated and the culprit punished, Russian President Vladimir Putin said toward the end of his annual press conference Thursday.
“We support their efforts in fighting ISIL with Russian air strikes”, he said, referring to the Islamic State group.
– New attack against Erdogan – The Kremlin strongman meanwhile accused the Turkish government of toadying to Washington, as he addressed the downing of a Russian bomber at the Syrian border by Ankara last month.
“Did they really think we would flee after the incident?” On the contrary, we increased our military presence, we increased the number of our aircraft, we increased our anti-aircraft missiles, etc. Before that, the Turkish Air Force was flying over Syria. He says that he wants to move to another level of relations, to a deeper level of relations with Russian Federation. At one point he speculated that Turkey may have shot down the Russian jet at the behest of the United States, perhaps in exchange for the USA turning a blind eye to a recent Turkish military deployment in northern Iraq.
Russian Federation imposed economic sanctions on Turkey in retaliation.
Egyptian authorities say the plane was not brought down by terrorism.
UFO site Disclose.tv, which uses the slogan “truth revealed”, posted: “Social networks are circulating pictures from 1920 and 1941 for which some people claim they are pictures of Russian President Vladimir Putin”.
He remains one of the world’s most recognisable politicians, and has topped the list of The World’s Most Powerful People compiled by Forbes magazine for the third year running.
On Wednesday, Putin signed a decree suspending Russia’s free-trade agreement with Ukraine as of January 1, the same day Kyiv is set to enter a similar trade deal with the European Union.
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Putin said that Trump’s comments to his domestic audience while on the campaign trail were not Russia’s concern, but added that he likes the Republican hopeful’s statements on Russian Federation.
