Turkey has advised citizens not to travel to Russia

Russian President Vladimir Putin called for sanctions against Turkey on Saturday after they downed a Russian jet earlier in the week.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday called for sanctions against Turkey, following the downing this week by Turkey of a Russian warplane. Davutgolu was speaking before flying to Brussels for a summit with the European Union. The order also suspends or limits the business activities of Turkish companies in Russian Federation and effectively bans any new hiring of Turkish citizens in Russian Federation from next year.

“Protection of our airspace, our border is not only a right but a duty for my government and no Turkish premier or president… will apologise (for) doing our duty”, Davutoglu told a joint press conference with North Atlantic Treaty Organisation head Jens Stoltenberg.

The decree also urges Russian tour operators to refrain from selling packages to Turkey, while Turkey’s Foreign Ministry has warned its citizens against non-essential travel to Russia “until the situation becomes clear”.

Turkey’s president has warned Russian Federation not to “play with fire”, as Moscow launches economic retaliation over the downing of one of its fighter jets near the Syrian border.

The move comes amid a bitter spat between Moscow and Ankara over a Russian warplane downed by Turkey on Tuesday.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday that “Turkey’s reactions to the incident… reminds of the Theatre of the Absurd”.

Putin’s foreign affairs adviser, Yuri Ushakov, said Friday that the Kremlin has refused multiple offers from Erdogan to meet because “we have seen that the Turkish side hasn’t been ready to offer an elementary apology over the plane incident”. “Instead of ensuring this never happens again, we are hearing unintelligible explanations”.

“Supporting state terrorism in Syria, which has claimed 380-thousand lives, is playing with fire”.

Russian Federation maintains that the aircraft stayed exclusively within Syrian airspace and no warnings were issued by Turkey.

The incident led to the death of two Russian officers – Moscow’s first combat deaths since it launched a bombing campaign in Syria on September 30 – including the pilot and a special forces soldier who participated in a rescue operation.

Both Russia and Turkey have taken part in air raids in Syria.