Turkey furious as images show soldier pointing rocket launcher as Russian

Turkey has summoned Russia’s ambassador to Ankara after images of a Russian serviceman brandishing a rocket launcher on a warship navigating through Turkish waters were published, a foreign ministry official said.

A video grab from the video broadcast by NTV apparently showing a Russian serviceman brandishing a rocket launcher from the deck of the Caesar Kunikov in the Bosphorus Strait.

Turkish social media have been circulating images claiming to show a Russian serviceman on a naval vessel passing by Istanbul holding what appears to be a rocket launcher.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu slammed Russia on Sunday after the picture emerged, calling it a “provocation” by Russian forces.

“In the worst-case scenario, which is zero relations with Russian Federation, we are talking about a loss of nine billion dollars”, Mehmet Simsek told private NTV television on Monday.

The ambassador was called to the ministry on Monday amid escalating Russian-Turkish tensions following Turkey’s downing of a Russian warplane near the border with Syria last month.

The Bosphorus strait is a waterway in northern Turkey, the busiest strait on the planet and connects the Sea of Marmara to the Black Sea.

Note that, Russian Navy ship, the Tsesar Kunikov, passed through the Bosporus with soldiers armed with air-defense systems on the deck on Sunday.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu was furious about the incident.