Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree imposing economic sanctions against Turkey on Saturday, four days after Turkey shot down a Russian warplane near the Syrian-Turkish border.
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Turkey says the Su-24 warplane strayed into its airspace and ignored repeated warnings, but Russian Federation has insisted it did not cross the border from Syria and demanded an apology.
He said Moscow was also playing with fire to use the downing of the jet “as an excuse to make unacceptable accusations against us”, and accused Russians of “mistreating” Turkish citizens who were in the country for a trade fair. “It did not even come into our mind that we could be struck by a party that we considered to be our ally”, Putin reportedly said Thursday in Moscow.
“We wish it hadn’t happened as such, but unfortunately such a thing has happened”.
Peskov said Putin was aware of a Turkish request for him to meet Erdogan on the sidelines of the Paris conference but gave no indication of whether such a meeting would take place.
The suspension of visa-free travel between the two countries and the restriction on employing Turkish workers will take effect from 1 January 2016.
Meanwhile, Turkey’s defiant president refused to apologize for shooting down the military jet, as Russia’s leaders planned to roll out economic sanctions against the country over the next two days.
Mr Hollande said they had agreed to target only ISIS and similar jihadi groups in Syria, despite the West’s insistence that Moscow is mostly targeting rebel groups fighting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
The shooting down of the jet by the Turkish air force on Tuesday was one of the most serious clashes between a North Atlantic Treaty Organisation member and Russian Federation, and further complicated global efforts to battle Islamic State militants.
Ankara has argued that it did not realise the plane, which it said had violated Turkish airspace, was Russian, and claimed it issued multiple warnings to the pilot to change course.
Mr Erdogan said: “We are truly saddened by this incident”.
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Moreover, Putin dismissed as “rubbish” Turkey’s claim that it didn’t know the nationality of the plane when the Turkish Air Force hit it.
