Excellent speech ...
Russia won't forget downed jet, Putin warns Turkey in annual addressRussian president says Ankara will not ‘get away with a tomato ban’ in response to ‘cynical war crime’
Vladimir Putin used his annual address to Russia’s political elite to warn Turkey’s leaders that Moscow would never forget last week’s downing of a Russian fighter jet.
The Russian president said he was still bemused by the Turkish decision to shoot down the Su-24. He said: “Perhaps only Allah knows why they did this. And it seems Allah decided to punish the ruling clique in Turkey by relieving them of their sense and judgment.”
Russia has implemented a series of economic sanctions against Turkey, including banning fruit and vegetable imports and ordering Russian tour operators not to send tourists to the country. Putin emphasised that this limited response was not an attempt to move on and start afresh, however.
“There will not be a nervous, hysterical reaction, that would be dangerous for us and for the whole world,” he said. “We will not engage in sabre rattling. But if people think that after carrying out a cynical war crime, killing our people, they’ll get away with a tomato ban or some limits in the construction sector, they’re very wrong. We will keep remembering what they did. And they will keep regretting it.”The day before, Russia’s defence ministry had called journalists to a briefing at its command centre, showing slides and satellite imagery claiming to show
proof that Turkey was profiting from the trade in Isis oil.“A unified team of bandits and Turkish elites operates in the region to steal oil from their neighbours,” deputy defence minister Anatoly Antonov said on Wednesday. Erdoğan later dismissed the accusations as “slander”.
Putin started his annual address by thanking Russian members of the forces “fighting international terrorism”. He said Russia had known what terrorism was over the years and said the current Russian campaign in Syria was “a fight for freedom, truth and justice”. The widows of the marine and pilot killed after Turkey shot the plane down were in the audience.
Putin again called for a unified coalition to fight terrorism, and said it was unacceptable to delineate between different terrorist groups. The Russian airstrikes have hit many groups that western countries do not consider terrorists. Putin also made it clear once again who he blames for the current terrorist threat.
“Iraq, Libya and Syria have turned into zones of chaos and anarchy which threaten the whole world,” he said. “And of course we know why this happened. We know who wanted to change inconvenient regimes, and crudely impose their rules. And what was the result? They made a mess, ruined the states, turned different peoples against each other and then, as we say in Russia, washed their hands of the places, opening the road for radicals, extremists and terrorists.”
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/d ... imir-putin
