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Turkey Shoots down Russian Plane to Protect Oil Trade with IS: Putin

(CRI Online)    08:10, December 01, 2015
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Turkey Shoots down Russian Plane to Protect Oil Trade with IS: Putin
Photo taken on Oct. 21, 2015 shows Russian Sukhoi Su-24 taking off from the Hmeymim airbase in the Latakia province, Syria. The Russian Defense Ministry on Tuesday confirmed that a Su-24 warplane crashed in Syria. [Photo: Xinhua]

Russian President Vladimir Putin is accusing Turkey of shooting down a Russian warplane in order to protect Turkish profiteering from illegal imports of oil produced by Islamic State rebels in Syria.

The accusation comes as Kremlin announces new measures to restrict Turkish import.

Speaking in Paris at the sideline of the UN climate summit, Mr Putin says the downing of the Russian warplane is a huge mistake.

He accused Ankara to shoot down the plane to protect its delivery track of oil with IS militants in Syria.

"We have now received additional information proving that, unfortunately, huge amounts of oil produced in oil fields controlled by IS and other terrorist organisations flows to the Turkish territory."

Turkey has been denying such accusation and is a part of the US-led coalition striking the militants group.

However Mr Putin also takes his time to question the viability of forming a broad international coalition against the Islamic State group following the incident.

At the meantime, Kremlin has announced to restrict imports of Turkish fruit and vegetables as part of a package of new sanctions.

The new measures were announced at a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev.

"These are our necessary responses that we resort to only to protect the interests of our people, as a reaction to the aggressive behaviour of the Turkish Republic. It's a response to the unfriendly actions of the Turkish government. Special measures indeed affect a large part of the economic relations."

The latest sanctions also include limits on the ability of Turkish construction firms to sign new contracts in Russia, and restrictions on road transport.

The measures come on top of some already published in Russian President Vladimir Putin's decree on Saturday, such as an end to visa-free travel for Turks in Russia and extensions of labour contracts for Turks working in Russia, effective as of 1 January 2016.

Meanwhile, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said his country would not apologise to Russia for shooting down the plane and said he hoped Russia would reconsider sanctions.

"I can say that the protection of our airspace (and) land borders is not only a right, but a duty for my government. No Turkish prime minister or president or authority will apologise because of doing our duty. Turkish airspace, protection of Turkish airspace, Turkish borders is a national duty and our army did their job to protect this airspace."

Turkey has said it was defending its national airspace, while the Russian government has denies its plane remained on the Syrian side of the border.

Davuloglu also said Turkey remained open to talks with Russia about ways to avoid such incidents in the future.

(For the latest China news, Please follow People's Daily on Twitter and Facebook)(Editor:Liang Jun,Bianji)

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