Russian President Vladimir Putin commented on Russia’s relations with Turkey in the wake of Turkey’s downing of a Russian Air Force jet, during his state of the nation address in Moscow on Thursday. SOT, Russian President Vladimir Putin (in Russian):
“We know, for example, who in Turkey is stuffing their pockets and allowing terrorists to earn money from the sale of stolen Syrian oil. It is with this money specifically that the bandits are hiring mercenaries, purchasing arms, organizing inhuman acts of terror aimed against our citizens, against the citizens of France, Lebanon, Mali, and other countries.
We remember that, specifically in Turkey, militants were hiding out and received moral and material support – militants who fought in the North Caucasus in the 1990s and 2000s, and we continue to notice them operating in that area.” SOT, Russian President Vladimir Putin (in Russian):
“We have many old and trustworthy friends in Turkey. I want to emphasize that we are not equating them with that part of the current ruling establishment, which carries the primary responsibility for the deaths of our servicemen in Syria.
We will not forget this aid to terrorism. We have always and will always view betrayal as the worst and most embarrassing deed. Let those in Turkey who shot our pilots in the back know this; those who hypocritically attempt to justify themselves and their actions as well as to cover the tracks of terrorism.
Respected colleagues, I do not understand at all why they did this. Any questions, any problems, and any contradictions, which we did not even see – we could have resolved them in a completely different way.
On top of this, we were ready to work together with Turkey in all areas which Turkey considers to be most sensitive, and were ready to go so far, even further than their allies were willing to go. Only Allah knows why they did this and it looks like Allah decided to punish the ruling establishment by taking away their reason and judgment.”Russia: "Turkey buys oil from IS and sells it worldwide"