President Vladimir Putin ordered Russian military to take “extremely tough”

Kerry said on Tuesday that the global meeting on ending the Syrian conflict may be held next week, but details about who should represent militant groups fighting in Syria are still being ironed out.

Putin did not mention Turkey by name in his speech, but did urge his military to respond in full force to any “further provocations”.

The buildup followed the downing of a Russian warplane by a Turkish fighter jet at the Syrian border on November 24.

“I am talking about contact with the Israeli Air Force command posts and with the forces of the [anti-IS] coalition led by the U.S.”, Putin said, before moving on to praise the military for its efforts against the terrorist group.

Moscow supplies weapons to the Syrian legitimate leadership to defeat the Islamic State (ISIL, or Daesh in Arabic) jihadist group operating in the region, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Friday.

He said the Russian military base in Syria has been beefed up with additional aircraft and air defense weapons. “Any targets threatening Russia’s (military) group or our land infrastructure must be immediately destroyed”, Mr Putin told the generals.

Ivan Sekretarev/AP Photos of Lt. Col. Oleg Peshkov, left, and sailor Alexander Pozynich are placed at a monument in Moscow, who were both killed when Turkey downed a Russian fighte jet.

Noting the increased security measures taken to protect the Russian military in Syria, Putin called for an “extremely strong” response against any threats.

Putin also used the opportunity to deny widespread claims that Russian Federation is in Syria to pursue wider geopolitical goals – such as asserting its role as a major world power, and finding a means to leverage its favor with Syrian President Bashar Assad to break Western sanctions imposed for Moscow’s annexation of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014. “If we are not responding to all that they have done until now, it is not because we are afraid or because of any psychology of guilt”, Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told NTV television.

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.

Shoigu said the military has received 35 new intercontinental ballistic missiles, 243 aircraft, 90 air defense systems and 1,172 tanks and other armored vehicles so far this year.

Russian defense spending is expected to remain essentially flat in 2016, ending a trend of year-on-year budget hikes since the program went into force five years ago – Shoigu estimated the program to be about 47 percent complete at this point. If you would like to discuss another topic, look for a relevant article.

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