Moscow’s relations with Ankara have been badly strained over the downing. Turkey said it shot down the aircraft after it violated Turkey’s airspace for 17 seconds despite repeated warnings.
Russia has insisted the warplane had stayed in Syria’s airspace, and responded by deploying long-range air defense missiles at its air base in Syria and introducing a slew of economic sanctions against Turkey.
“We had treated Turkey not only as a friendly country, but as an ally in the fight against terrorism, and we couldn’t expect such a mean, treacherous stab in the back,” Putin said.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova dismissed Turkey’s complaint about a sailor on a Russian navy vessel pictured on its deck with a portable air-defense missile while the ship was cruising across the Bosporus.
Turkey denounced the incident as a provocation and summoned the Russian ambassador to protest.
Zakharova responded Tuesday by saying the Russian crew had the right to protect its vessel and insisted that the action didn’t contradict the Montreux Convention, which sets international rules for using the Turkish straits.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry also voiced concern Tuesday about the reported bombing of a Syrian army camp without addressing the U.S. claim that Russia was responsible for the bombing.
The Syrian government blamed aircraft from the U.S.-led coalition for targeting the army camp in the eastern city of Deir el-Zour on Sunday night, killing three Syrian soldiers and wounding 13. The U.S. denied the claim, and a senior U.S. official military said Washington was “certain” it was a Russian airstrike that had hit the camp. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to discuss the issue publicly.
Without commenting on the U.S. claim, Russia’s Foreign Ministry on Tuesday said it has “serious concerns” about reports of the coalition strike in Deir el-Zour. It said the incident was rooted in the U.S.-led coalition’s reluctance to coordinate with Damascus on its campaign against the Islamic State group.
The ministry also mentioned a coalition strike in Syria’s province of Hassake that reportedly involved civilian casualties.
“These incidents show that the situation on the front against IS in Syria and Iraq is getting more tense,” the ministry said, adding that the Turkish military’s deployment to a base near Mosul in Iraq without Iraqi government sanction has added to the tensions.
“We consider such presence unacceptable,” the ministry said.
U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power, said Washington expects Turkey to operate in coordination with the Iraqi government.
“We have urged political dialogue between the Iraqi government and that in Turkey,” Power said. “Our belief is that just as we operate in close coordination with and with the consent of the Iraqi government that all countries should do that.”
She voiced hope that the Turkish deployment could “be done in that manner where a sovereign government is making judgments about which capabilities are deployed and making sure that it has visibility into everything going on in its country.”
Dmitri Trenin, director of the Carnegie Moscow Center, said that while Russia so far has said ‘no’ to Iraq’s request for help in fighting IS, that attitude may change. He added that the arsenal Russia has put on the ground in Syria signals Moscow’s intention to have a lasting military presence.
“It’s not going to be a short operation, it’s not going to be a short war,” Trenin said. “Russia is there for a long haul.”
