Turkey says Turkish and Russian foreign minister will meet in Belgrade today

A meeting between the Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his Turkish counterpart, Mevlut Cavusoglu, has started in Belgrade, amid worsening relations between the two countries over the downing of a Russian bomber in Syria.

Meanwhile Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier on Thursday vowed never to forget Turkey’s downing of one of Moscow’s warplanes, as he lashed out once again at the leadership in Ankara over the incident. “These positions have been laid bare and we reiterated them today, including what was said in the presidential state-of-the-nation address”, Lavrov added.

Turkey says the Russian jet violated its airspace and that it was repeatedly warned, something Russia has denied.

Lavrov has said that the Turkish side was asking for contacts on the sidelines of the meeting of the foreign ministers of the countries of the Organsiation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in the Serbian capital.

The Russian president reiterated that Russia believes that the Turkish leadership makes money from smuggling crude oil obtained by Daesh militant group in territories that the opposition group occupies in Syria and Iraq.

Putin particularly focused Turkey, accusing it of “allowing terrorists to earn cash by selling oil stolen from Syria”.

Expressing hope that Russian Federation would cease making “groundless accusations”, Cavusoglu said he was sure “common sense” would prevail.

Russia’s plans to significantly grow its gas export capacity to Europe through the expansion of the Nord Stream pipeline and the construction of the TurkStream link are facing an increasingly uncertain future, with energy minister Alexander Novak on Thursday forced to address issues facing both projects. The Russian Defense Ministry on Wednesday released an array of satellite and aerial images which it said show hundreds of oil trucks streaming across the border. “Our hope is that they will give up their baseless claims”.

Erdogan hit back by saying he had evidence of Russian nationals being behind black market oil deals with the group. Every day it created different lies.

Moscow imposed economic measures against Ankara after the attack, citing the growing terrorist threat originating in Turkey. The base “will begin being used by Russian forces before the end of this month”. Russia, which is carrying out a military campaign in Syria in support of its longtime ally, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, has responded with sanctions against Turkey.