Putin: No Apology From Turkey For Downing Jet

He said he regretted the fact that relations between Turkey and Russian Federation have been driven into a stalemate.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has flatly refused to apologise for the downing of a Russian fighter jet, saying the aircraft was clearly violating Turkish airspace near the Syrian border.

“I propose doing all this in a period of two days so that we can move to setting up the appropriate procedures as quickly as possible”, Medvedev told government ministers.

Missiles have been fired from Russian warships in the Mediterranean and fighters jets have also been launching raids in Syria’s Latakia province.

“Had we known it was a Russian plane we may have acted differently”, he said.

Turkey would “respond the same way” if the incident happened again, he added.

Russia also announced import controls on Turkish agriculture imports and warned Russian citizens against travel to Turkey.

On Thursday, Mr Erdogan denied accusations from Russian Federation that Turkey was collaborating with Islamic State (IS), which has seized territory in Syria and Iraq.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the plane was downed by an air-to-air missile launched by a Turkish F-16 jet over Syrian territory, falling 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) from the Turkish border.

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.

Russia’s defence ministry meanwhile said it had suspended all co-operation with the Turkish military, including a hotline set up to share information on Russian air strikes in Syria, the TASS news agency reported.

The audio that was released only involved Turkish warnings, no replies by a Russian pilot. “Change your heading south immediately”.

But Moscow says the plane was over Syria when it was downed and never entered Turkey’s airspace.

“Of course, we are still waiting for an explanation, realistic explanations from the Turkish side”, Peskov told reporters. Two pilots on board ejected from and survived the crash, but one was killed when the pair came under small arms attack from rebels on the ground.