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Russia’s PM: Syria mission no burden on budget

Meanwhile, the Kremlin said on Wednesday that Russian Vladimir Putin invited “British specialists” to examine the black box of the Russian warplane downed by Turkey.

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Russia and Turkey have fiercely disagreed on the circumstances surrounding the shooting down of the Russian SU-24 fighter jet on Nov 24.

A US-led coalition says Russian Federation often targets moderate Syrian opposition.

Moscow insists the plane never strayed from Syrian airspace but Turkey says it was shot down after repeatedly violating its airspace.

McGurk also said that the coalition’s top priority was to fully secure the border between Turkey and territory held by ISIS in northern Syria.

Speaking Wednesday at a televised press conference in Moscow, Medvedev said by launching the air force operation on September 30, the defense ministry did not go over its planned budget. “Why is it not bombing terrorists as such, but the Kurds instead?”

Moscow has sought, so far without success, to persuade nations in the US-led coalition that opposes Assad to work with its own forces flying a bombing campaign in Syria and with Damascus in a broader coalition against the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group.

Moscow and Ankara are locked in a bitter feud over the November 24 downing of the jet on Turkey’s border with Syria, sparking fury and economic sanctions from the Kremlin.

In a statement, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said it was the “first time” Kalibr cruise missiles were launched into Syria by the Rostov-on-Don submarine from an underwater position in the Mediterranean Sea. He said it should be opened only in the presence of global experts, “to carefully document everything”.

Putin said that no matter what the outcome of the investigation, “Russia’s attitude to what the Turkish authorities did is not going to change”.

“I’m… traveling to Moscow in a week and will be meeting with him (Putin) and with Foreign Minister Lavrov on the subject of Syria and on Ukraine”, Kerry said.

The Pentagon noted last month that Russian airstrikes had appeared more focused on Islamic State targets, after definitively linking the extremist group to the bombing of a Russian jetliner in late October. “The Russian air campaign has different objectives quite frankly”, he said at a briefing for the media in Baghdad.

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Putin and Cameron spoke as a broad range of Syrian opposition groups, including armed factions, held unprecedented talks in the Saudi capital on forming a united front for talks with Bashar al-Assad.

Russian President Vladimir Putin with Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu attend a meeting on Russian air force's activity in Syria at the national defense control center in Moscow Russia