On Tuesday, a Russian Su-24 jet crashed in Syria.
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He told CNN that Russian Federation, not Turkey, should be the one to apologize for the incident. Moscow insists it never left Syrian air space, but Ankara says it crossed the border despite repeated warnings.
A surviving Russian pilot has pilot has denied that his jet veered into Turkey’s airspace and rejected Turkey’s claim that it had issued repeated warnings to the Russian crew.
Scary as the shooting down of a Russian warplane was – especially by Turkey, a North Atlantic Treaty Organisation member – signs emerged Friday that some leaders involved are working to ease tensions between the two countries.
“We assume Russian reprisals… will not lead to further Turkish escalation and in due course the Turkish-Russian relationship will return to a degree of geopolitical equilibrium”, said Michael Harris, global head of research at private Russian investment bank Renaissance Capital.
Moscow says its military involvement in Syria is aimed at battling terrorist groups including Islamic State, casting the campaign to a supportive Russian public as a moral crusade that must be completed despite obstruction from elsewhere.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the plane was downed over Syrian territory by an air-to-air missile launched by a Turkish F-16 jet, and fell 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) from the Turkish border.
In addition to the military moves, the Kremlin also acted to inflict economic pain on Turkey.
He said that Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan will “meet face-to-face soon” but offered no details. During the operation to rescue the pilot, a Mi-8 helicopter was damaged by gunfire and a soldier was killed. “Collective action that harnesses the varying strengths of the United States, the EU, Russia, Turkey and others can, and will, turn the tide”. Erdogan said: “faced with the same violation today, Turkey would give the same response”.
Cameron wants to hold a vote in Parliament on airstrikes, but said he would only do so if “there is a clear majority for action, because we will not hand a publicity coup” to IS. It also is the largest destination for Turkish exports, mostly textiles and food, and Turkish construction companies have won a sizable niche of the Russian market.
When asked about a possibility for Turkey to prevent Russian vessels from passing through the Bosporus to Syria, Dmitry Peskov said that Moscow was counting “on the inviolability of standards of freedom of navigation through the Black Sea Straits”.
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“I think the key economic drivers shouldn’t change too much provided that the diplomatic and political forces don’t do anything silly”, he said.
