Russia seeks economic revenge against Turkey as spat escalates

Russia on Thursday pledged broad retaliatory measures against Turkey’s economy in revenge for the downing of one of its warplanes, as recriminations between Moscow and Ankara reached fever pitch. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan angrily rebuffed his Russian counterpart’s demands for an apology and said Vladimir Putin had snubbed a phone call from him after Tuesday’s incident. The spat reflected a clash of ambitions of two strongman leaders, neither of whom appeared willing to back down and search for a compromise.

We are under the impression that the Turkish leadership is deliberately pushing Russian-Turkish relations into deadlock. We regret that.

Russian President Vladimir Putin

The downing of the plane on the Syrian border has raised fears it could fuel a wider geopolitical conflict and highlighted the difficulty of forging consensus on the fate of Syria as French President Francois Hollande held talks with Putin in Moscow. In an escalating war of words, Erdogan also responded to Russian accusations that Turkey has been buying oil and gas from the Islamic State by accusing Syrian President Bashar Assad and his backers, which include Moscow, of being the real source of the group’s financial and military power. The tensions have threatened to derail Hollande’s efforts to cobble together a broad anti-ISIS coalition in response to the recent Paris attacks.

Faced with the same violation today, Turkey would give the same response. It’s the country that carried out the violation which should question itself and take measures to prevent it from happening again, not the country that was subjected to a violation.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan

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