“Destroy threats to Russians in Syria immediately” – Putin

Russian Federation is helping the Free Syrian Army with air support, weapons and ammunition in joint operations with regular Syrian forces against so-called Islamic State, President Putin said.

Putin today “warned anyone against further provocations, without naming Turkey”, and said “the military will respond in the toughest way”.

Russian Defense Ministry officials have been repeatedly denying such reports, saying there is no “operational logic” in using additional airbases in Syria.

“I order to act extremely tough. Any targets that threaten Russian forces or our infrastructure on the ground should be immediately destroyed”, Putin told a session of the Defense Ministry’s collegium.

He said a Russian military base in the country had been reinforced with new air units and defence equipment.

“The work of our aviation group assists in uniting the efforts of government troops and the Free Syrian Army”, Putin said, according to local news network RT.

In late November, Russia’s warships based in the Caspian and Mediterranean seas also launched similar missiles targeting Islamic State (ISIS) positions.

An S-400 air defence missile system is deployed for a combat duty at the Hmeymim airbase to provide security of the Russian air group’s flights in Syria.

His remarks were delivered just two weeks after a Turkish F-16 fighter jet shot down a Russian Su-24 fighter-bomber when it allegedly infringed on Turkish airspace, and appeared to be directed at Ankara – which Putin has since accused of aiding the Islamic State group in Syria.

Mr Cavusoglu told NTV television: “If we are not responding to all that they have done until now, it is not because we are afraid or because any psychology of guilt”.

Russian President Vladimir Putin later said the missiles fired from the Russian submarine could be fitted with nuclear warheads.

A spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin has refuted the president’s statement earlier Friday that Russia is supplying weapons to a leading Western-backed opposition group in Syria. “The combined use of force from the Aerospace Forces and the Navy, the use of the newest precise systems of weaponry has allowed us to deliver serious damage to the infrastructure of terrorists, and has seriously changed the situation in Syria”, Putin reportedly said.

Russia’s ambitious arms modernization program has continued at full pace this year, even though low oil prices and Western sanctions drove the economy into recession this year.

About 56 percent of Russian nuclear weapons are new, including modern missiles, upgraded aircraft and a strengthened submarine capacity, Shoigu said.