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Russia announces economic sanctions against Turkey

But Turkey’s downing of a Russian warplane has created problems for both France and the United States.

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The U.S. and its allies have expressed concerns that rather than target ISIS strongholds, Moscow is bombing areas held by Syrian rebels opposed to President Bashar Assad, a staunch Russian ally.

A Kremlin spokesman said on November 28 that the incident had caused damage to bilateral relations that would be hard to fix.

Moscow rejected Turkey’s assertion that its SU-24 fighter jet had flown into Turkish air space for 17 seconds after ignoring repeated warnings to change course.

It said Turks should delay travel plans until “the situation becomes clear”.

The decree signed by Putin also outlaws travel operators from selling tours to Turkey, a favorite destination for Russian holidaymakers, and bans charter flights between the two countries.

Russian Federation announced on Friday (local time) it was halting a visa-free regime for Turkish visitors, after threatening a raft of retaliatory economic measures to punish the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation member state.

Meanwhile Two Turkish journalists arrested last week over their reports about arms supplies to Syria urged the European Union not to compromise on human rights and freedoms to reach an agreement with Turkey to help stem flows of migrants to Europe.

Russian Federation is preparing a broad swath of economic sanctions against Turkey and has restricted tourist travel into the nation in response to the plane’s downing.

Turkey is one of Russia’s leading trade partners and the economies of the two countries are intimately integrated. That could impact contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

Erdogan on Saturday said the Paris summit could be a chance to fix Ankara’s relations with Russian Federation.

Moscow has slapped sanctions on Ankara as the war of words over a downed Russian warplane escalated, with Turkish strongman Recep Tayyip Erdogan warning Russia not to “play with fire”.

IHLAS NEWS AGENCY/AFP/Getty Images Video shows the burning Russian fighter jet plunging to earth after being shot down near the Turkish-Syrian border, in Hatay on November 24.

The decree was published on the Kremlin’s website, hours after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan voiced regret over the incident, saying his country was “truly saddened” by the event.

Erdogan said he wished the incident had not happened but continued to defend Turkey’s actions.

But Moscow, which denies Ankara’s claims the plane ever violated Turkish airspace, remains furious.

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Putin had earlier warned of “serious consequences” for what he described as a stab in the back administered by “the accomplices of terrorists”.

Russia announces economic sanctions against Turkey