Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russian Federation was forced to fly missions close to the Turkish border because that was where the militants tended to be located.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin holds a video conference with top military officials on Russia’s Air Forces’ operation in Syria at the Novo-Ogaryovo residence outside Moscow on November 20, 2015. Neither country wants to go to war, but the crash further strains relations between Moscow and Ankara in Syria, where Russian forces have bombed Turkish-backed rebel groups fighting against the Assad government.
Hours after the crash, Russian President Vladimir Putin called it “a stab in the back, carried out by the accomplices of terrorists”.
“We repeatedly informed Russian authorities and made necessary warnings”.
Yesterday, Putin ordered the military to deploy the S-400s to Hemeimeem and took other measures that “should be sufficient to ensure flight safety”. “Moskva is ready to destroy any air target of potential danger to our aircraft”, Shoigu said. He said that his ministry had severed all contacts with the Turkish military.
Russian Federation is not planning to engage in war with Turkey, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in an interview with the state-owned Rossiya 24 television channel on Wednesday.
Ankara says that the planes entered Turkish airspace without authorisation and were warned to retreat ten times within a five-minute period before being shot down.
Both Nato and the United States have called for “calm and de-escalation”, backing Turkey’s version of events.
The Russian Foreign Ministry has already warned Russians against travelling to Turkey, and some leading Russian tourist agencies suspended the sales of tour packages to Turkey.
This could have a substantial impact on Turkey’s tourism industry as hundreds of thousands of Russians visit the country each year under a visa-free travel programme. “We have questions over the action of Turkey’s current leadership”, Lavrov told a news conference.
Turkish officials have accused Russian Federation of repeated airspace violations since it launched airstrikes against Assad’s armed opposition in late September. He also pointed at routine violations of Greece’s airspace by Turkish combat planes.
Erdogan also said Ankara had no intention of escalating tensions with Russian Federation. Speaking at an conference in Istanbul, Erdogan said Turkey favours “peace, dialogue and diplomacy”.
But Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has insisted the jet was in Turkish airspace when it was sacked on.
In Moscow, several hundred people hurled stones and eggs at Turkey’s embassy.
Davutoglu told his party’s lawmakers Turkey didn’t know the plane’s nationality until Moscow confirmed it was Russian. Even if Russian Federation doesn’t intend to retaliate directly, the new anti-aircraft systems in the area, the lack of communications between the two militaries, and the heightened atmosphere of tension make another incident where the two sides start shooting at each other all the more likely.
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“We can not leave what happened without a response”, added Lavrov, the foreign minister.
