Russia strengthens its anti-aircraft defences
AMN /
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has warned Russia’s President Vladimir Putin not to play with fire over his country’s downing of a Russian jet. In a speech at the North-eastern Turkish city of Bayburt, Mr Erdogan also said, he wanted to meet Mr Putin face to face at climate talks in Paris to resolve the issue.
“Supporting [Assad’s] regime that claims 380,000 lives in Syria and implements state terrorism, is also playing with fire,” Erdogan said in a speech in Turkey’s northeastern Bayburt province.
The Russian President’s aide has said that Mr Putin wants an apology from Turkey before he will speak to Mr Erdogan. Russia has suspended its visa free arrangement with Turkey in the latest of a range of retaliatory measures. Turkey says, the Russian warplane was in its airspace when the decision was taken to shoot it down on Tuesday, Russia insists the plane was flying over Syria at the time.
Meanwhile, Russia has strengthened its anti-aircraft defences in Syria by moving a cruiser towards the coast and deploying new missiles at its main base. The Moskva cruiser’s long-range air defence system will provide cover for Russian aircraft, as will the S-400 missiles, which arrived on Thursday. A senior Russian commander said two Turkish F-16s patrolling the area for more than an hour beforehand had in fact ambushed the jet. He said Russian and Syrian radar data proved that a Turkish jet had fired a missile from 2 kilometers inside Syria. Turkey did not respond to the allegation.