Russian Federation planning sanctions against Turkey over downed warplane

The Iraqi politician, who is a former prime minister of the country, also accused Turkey’s leader of hypocrisy as he commented on Turkey’s claims of a short violation of Turkish airspace by the Russian warplane which was downed by the country’s air forces.

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 worldwide efforts to battle Islamic State militants.

The Russian jet was reportedly on its way to Syria and only in Turkish airspace for 17 seconds before it was shot down.

“Russia is quite concerned with increasing terrorist threats in the Republic of Turkey”, Lavrov added, after a spate of bloody attacks blamed on Islamic State extremists there.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Turkey had “crossed the line of what is acceptable” and warned the incident could severely undermine both its national and regional interests.

Turkey and Russian Federation have important economic links. Moscow has also recalled its military representative from Turkey.

Turkey’s leader, president Tayyip Erdogan, struck back, telling local governors in his palace that it was Russia’s ally, Syrian president Bashar al-Assad who bought ISIS oil and that those making the claims were “slanderers”.

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu on today sought to ease tensions with Moscow over the downing of a Russian warplane on the Syrian border, calling for unity against the ISIS.

Moscow has also hinted the reprisals could hit two major projects with Turkey – a planned gas pipeline and a nuclear power plant.

Putin’s foreign affairs adviser Yuri Ushakov said Friday that the Kremlin had received Erdogan’s request for a meeting, but wouldn’t say whether such a meeting is possible.

Another official, the deputy head of Russia’s agricultural standards agency, Nikolai Vlasov, was more direct, telling Interfax the measures were needed to prevent “enemy tricks” from the Turkish side.

Underscoring the message, Russian forces launched a heavy bombardment against insurgent-held areas in Latakia on Wednesday, near where the jet was downed, rebels and a monitoring group said.

Erdogan has said Turkey deserves the apology because its air space was violated. Russian Federation has since restricted tourist travel, left Turkish trucks stranded at the border, confiscated large quantities of Turkish food imports and started preparing a raft of broader economic sanctions.

He added that it was hard to predict levels of tourism for Russians going to Turkey next year.