Putin: Turkey ‘will regret’ bomber jet shoot-down

Russian President Vladimir Putin (C) delivers his annual state of the nation address at the Kremlin in Moscow on December 3, 2015. AFP PHOTO / KIRILL KUDRYAVTSEV / AFP / KIRILL KUDRYAVTSEV

In a state of the nation speech, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Turkey will “more than once” regret shooting down the Russian bomber jet near the Syrian-Turkish border.

Russian leader described the incident as a “treacherous war crime” and accused Turkey of “aiding terrorists”. The leader signalled for additional sanctions against Turkey during his speech.

Russia has announced wide-ranging sanctions against Turkey including an import ban on Turkish fruit and vegetables.

Putin repeated the claim that Turkey buys oil from the Islamic State and called for a broad international coalition against terrorism, referencing Turkey he called to avoid “double standards, contacts with any terrorist organisations, and any attempt to use them for their own ends.”

Russia also claimed that Erdogan’s family was directly profiting from Islamic State oil smuggling.

Turkey rejected Russian allegations about Turkey buying oil from Islamic State is only “Soviet-style propaganda”.

Delivering his speech on Thursday Putin said, “it appears that Allah decided to punish the ruling clique of Turkey by depriving it of any reason or logic”.

As Erdogan and Putin continue a war of words, Turkish president Erdogan made a clear stance that Turkey will not apologise for defending its own air space.

Turkey insists the SU-24 bomber jet violated its air space and was warned repeatedly before the shoot down. Russia on the other hand says the plane had not strayed from Syrian air space