Russian Federation to Launch Sanctions against Turkey over Downed Jet

The pledge came with the condition that Russian and American leaders would have to meet to discuss the downed Russian warplane, which Turkey is responsible for.

“But of course incidents like the destruction of our aircraft and the deaths of our servicemen… are absolutely unacceptable”.

At the same time, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned Russian Federation “not to play with fire” after reports dozens of Turkish businessmen were being expelled from Russian Federation. We have an impression that the Turkish government is consciously driving Russian-Turkish relations to a stalemate.

“We believe that the Turkish leadership has crossed the line of what is acceptable”, he said. We could sit and talk there.

He said that Russia will hold “serious consultations” with the U.S. over the shoot-down of a Russian jet by Turkey.

Putin also said that the two leaders agreed to avoid targeting groups who are ready to fight “terrorism” and even ready to cooperate with opposition groups fighting ISIS.

Meanwhile, Turkey said it will not apologize for the incident, but has called for the two countries to keep all diplomatic and communication channels open.

But the Russian President is refusing to contact Mr Erdogan directly because Ankara does not want to apologise, a Putin aide said.

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said the sanctions will include “restrictions and bans on Turkish economic structures operating in Russian territory, restrictions and bans on deliveries of products, including foodstuffs”.

The West has accused Moscow of targetting mostly-Western backed rebel groups fighting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was meeting with Syrian counterpart Walid Muallem earlier on Friday when he said Turkey “risks to face a complicated situation in the region”.

However Putin said he would order Russia’s military to bolster its cooperation with French forces – including exchanging information about targets. Tuesday’s incident prompted a tough response from Moscow, a major trade partner and Turkey’s largest energy supplier. One pilot was killed; the other was rescued by Russian and Syrian special forces.

He said, “Russia is welcomed to be part of this broad-based coalition against ISIS”.