Vladimir Putin says Turkey's shooting down of a Russian jet was a ‘war crime’
Minutes after Putin had finished speaking, his energy minister, Alexander Novak, said Russia was halting talks with Ankara on the Turkish Stream gas pipeline, a symbolic move designed to emphasise the strength of Kremlin anger.
Putin, who made the comments during his annual state-of-the-nation speech to his country’s political elite, said Russia would not forget the November 24 incident and that he continued to regard it as a terrible betrayal.
“We are not planning to engage in military sabre-rattling (with Turkey),” said Putin, after asking for a moment’s silence for the two Russian servicemen killed in the immediate aftermath of the incident, and for Russian victims of terrorism.
Putin: Turkey committed "treacherous war crime". https://t.co/6k9AobD34X pic.twitter.com/NbKgvXhjiL
— Al Jazeera Breaking News (@AJENews) December 3, 2015
“But if anyone thinks that having committed this awful war crime, the murder of our people, that they are going to get away with some measures concerning their tomatoes or some limits on construction and other sectors, they are sorely mistaken.”
Turkey would have cause to regret its actions “more than once”, he said.
The rhetoric Putin used will dash hopes of any early rapprochement and deepen a rift between the countries.
“It appears that Allah decided to punish the ruling clique of Turkey by depriving them of wisdom and judgment,” he said.
Repeating a call for a new international coalition against terrorism, Putin, in an overt reference to Turkey, called on countries to avoid “double standards, contacts with any terrorist organisations, and any attempts to use them for their own ends”.
