Russia on Thursday stepped up its retaliation
against Turkey for the downing of one of its
warplanes, tightening controls over Turkish food
imports as President Vladimir Putin demanded
Ankara apologise.
Tensions have soared after Turkish fighter jets
shot down the bomber on the Syrian border on
Tuesday, leading to the loss of one of two pilots
and a soldier who took part in a failed rescue
operation, Russia’s first combat losses since the
start of its Syria campaign.
Moscow ruled out any military retaliation against
NATO-member Turkey but has struck out at its
key tourism and agricultural sectors even as
officials in Ankara and the West have sought to
put a lid on the dispute. “We still have not heard
any articulate apologies from Turkey’s highest
political level nor any proposals to compensate
for the harm and damage nor promises to punish
criminals responsible for their crimes,” Putin said
at the Kremlin.
Turkey insists its forces repeatedly warned the
Russian jet, an assertion backed up by the
United States, and Ankara issued what it said
was a recording of the communications.
But Moscow says the plane never crossed over
the border from Syria, and the rescued pilot said
there was no warning before his plane was shot
down in flames. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei
Lavrov branded the incident a “planned
provocation” while Putin accused Turkey of a
“stab in the back committed by accomplices of
terrorists”.
Turkey’s military said it did not know the
warplane was Russian and that it was ready for
“all kinds of cooperation”. However, the downing
raised fears it could fuel a wider geopolitical
conflict and highlighted the difficulty of forging
consensus on the fate of Syria as Putin prepares
to host French President Francois Hollande on
Thursday.
After jihadists killed 130 people in Paris this
month in attacks claimed by the Islamic State
group, Hollande went on a diplomatic offensive,
floating an idea of grand coalition to fight the
jihadists in Syria. The French leader travelled to
Washington for talks with US President Barack
Obama and then met German Chancellor Angela
Merkel in Paris.
But few expect the Kremlin talks to produce a
breakthrough. Experts say it is hard to imagine
Russia and Turkey in the same anti-IS coalition
given their stark differences on the Syrian
conflict and the new tensions over the Russian
jet.
– Tourism and food imports –
Putin has backed a warning to citizens not to
travel to Turkey, which is hugely popular with
Russian tourists, and the federal tourism agency
recommended a ban on the sale of package
holidays to the country. Russia also went after
Turkey’s agricultural sector, upping checks on
food imports over alleged safety standard
violations.
But while Moscow’s rhetoric has been tough,
authorities conspicuously stopped short of
banning Turkish food imports altogether. Some
15 percent of Turkish agricultural produce does
not meet Russian standards with levels of
pesticides and nitrates considerably above safe
limits, Agriculture Minister Alexander Tkachev
said.
The move is expected to become a major
nuisance for Turkey which over the past 10
months exported agricultural produce and food
worth just over $1 billion (940 million euros) to
Russia, down a fifth from the same period last
year. Russia also said it could redirect its own
exports to Turkey including wheat and oil —
which totalled $1.3 billion over the past 10
months — to countries in the Middle East and
Africa.
On Wednesday, lawmakers from the Kremlin-
friendly A Just Russia party introduced a bill
calling for a maximum punishment of five years
in jail for those who deny the mass killing of
Armenians by Ottoman Turkey in 1915 was a
genocide. If passed, the measure is expected to
particularly infuriate Ankara which has always
denied that the killings were a premeditated
attempt by the Ottoman Empire to wipe out the
Armenians.
In another retaliatory move, Vitaly Mutko,
Russia’s sports minister and football federation
chief, said the body recommended clubs cancel
any visit to Turkey unless it involved an official
calendar event. A question mark is also hanging
over a summit between Putin and Turkish
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan that was
expected to take place in Russia next month.
Russia has said it would ratchet up its firepower
in Syria and send its most advanced S-400 air
defence systems to its airbase there, adding that
bombers flying sorties would be accompanied by
fighter jets. Russia’s air campaign in Syria had
raised fears of such a mid-air misunderstanding
with planes flying over the country as part of the
US-led anti-IS coalition.