Putin also made a veiled swipe at Turkey and again called for the United States to cooperate with him to fight terrorists. “Any targets threatening the Russian groups of forces or our land infrastructure should be immediately destroyed”.
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And the U.S. envoy will also bring up the ongoing stand-off in eastern Ukraine, where Moscow stands accused of supporting pro-Russian separatist rebels, Toner said.
“No, Russia is supplying weapons to the Syrian Arab Republic, to Syria’s legitimate authorities”, he said when asked whether Russia supplied arms to the so-called moderate opposition in Syria.
Earlier this week Russian Federation said it hit IS targets with missiles fired from a submarine in the Mediterranean for the first time since launching the campaign.
Without naming Turkey, Mr Putin said the military should respond in full force to any “further provocations”.
“I order to act very tough”.
US Secretary of State John Kerry will meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Moscow next week to discuss the situation in Syria and Ukraine, the US State Department has announced.
Russia’s more than two-month bombing campaign in Syria has bolstered Assad, who controls a quarter of Syrian territory and 60 percent of its population, after nearly five years of civil war that has killed about 300,000 people and displaced millions.
“I am talking about contact with the Israeli Air Force command posts and with the forces of the [anti-IS] coalition led by the U.S.”, Putin said, before moving on to praise the military for its efforts against the terrorist group.
Turkey said it downed the Russian plane after it violated its air space for 17 seconds despite repeated warnings, while Russia has insisted the plane remained in Syrian air space. This was stated by Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to Russian news agency RIA Novosti. “But we also say that our patience is not unlimited”, Cavusoglu told the private NTV television in an interview.
Disagreement over which Syrian opposition groups should take part in the peace process, and a list of terrorist groups that would be excluded, is holding up the December 18 talks, said Vitaly Churkin, Russia’s envoy to the United Nations, according to state news service RIA Novosti.
“Our actions there are not guided by some unclear abstract geopolitical interests, nor are they guided by a desire to practice and test new weapons systems which is of course important in itself”, Putin said.
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The military also expanded its presence in the Arctic, building several new bases and other military facilities there.
