The Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed the request has been officially submitted to the Russian president.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday signed a decree imposing economic sanctions against Turkey after Turkey shot down a Russian warplane near the Syrian-Turkish border Tuesday.
Putin has so far refused to talk to Erdogan because Ankara has not yet apologised for the downing of the jet, a Putin aide said.
Putin’s decree also calls for ending visa-free travel between Russian Federation and Turkey and orders the tightening of control over Turkish air carriers in Russian Federation “for security reasons”. We would not like such a thing to happen, we would not want it but unfortunately it did.
“I hope that something like this doesn’t occur again”, Mr Erdogan said.
“We very sincerely recommend to Russian Federation not to play with fire”, Erdogan said in a televised speech. Russian President Vladimir Putin has described the move a “stab in the back, carried out by the accomplices of terrorists”.
Turkey’s Foreign Ministry said Saturday it was issuing the warning because Turkish travelers were facing “problems” in Russian Federation.
Russia has chose to unilaterally suspend its visa exemption for Turkish citizens starting from January 1, 2016, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Friday.
The sanctions were announced in a decree published on the Kremlin’s website and comes as Turkish President Recep Tayipp Erdogan voiced regret over the incident, saying he wished the event hadn’t happened. Erdogan has rejected Russia’s calls to apologize.
World leaders have urged the two sides to lower tensions, with many expressing concern that it could harm efforts to fight the Islamic State group and derail a fresh diplomatic push to broker a Syria peace deal. It said Turks should delay travel plans until “the situation becomes clear”.
Putin said that Turkey’s claim it would not have targeted the Su-24 if it had known it was Russian was “rubbish”.
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The incident led to the death of two Russian officers – Moscow’s first combat deaths since it launched a bombing campaign in Syria on September 30 – including the pilot and a special forces soldier who participated in a rescue operation.
