Ties between Russia and North Atlantic Treaty Organisation member Turkey have badly strained after Ankara last week shot down the Russian plane along its border with Syria. “For that money the bandits are recruiting mercenaries, buying weapons and staging cruel terror attacks aimed against our citizens, as well as citizens of France, Lebanon, Mali and other countries”, he said.
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The meeting between Russia’s Sergei Lavrov and Turkey’s Mevlut Cavusoglu, on the sidelines of the ministerial council of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, was also confirmed by a diplomatic source in Belgrade.
Putin said that Russian Federation will take other retaliatory moves against Turkey, but will not engage in saber rattling.
Russian President Vladimir Putin snubbed an offer from Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan for a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the climate summit in Paris early this week.
Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu on Thursday accused Moscow of running a “Soviet propaganda machine” with lies straight out of the Pravda newspaper after Russian officials claimed Ankara traded oil with the Islamic State jihadist group in Syria.
“Nobody gives credit to this Soviet propaganda machine’s lies”. “Some characteristics of the Soviet era are emerging one by one”.
The families of at least half a dozen regional lawmakers from the United Russia ruling party own real estate in Turkey, but despite Moscow’s sanctions against Ankara for the downing of a Russian warplane, most are reluctant to sell their holdings, the RBC news agency reported Wednesday. “I believe our colleagues, our Turkish neighbours, should understand themselves what they must do”, he said, without elaborating.
Putin said in his speech that Russia’s air campaign in Syria that started on September 30 is meant to fend off a terror threat to Russia posed by militant groups in Syria that include Russian residents.
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Erdogan rejected the claims as Russian “slander” and said he was ready to resign if the claim was proven.
