Russia suspends visa-free travel with Turkey
MOSCOW — Russia announced Friday that it will suspend visa-free travel with Turkey amid the escalating spat over the downing of a Russian warplane by a Turkish fighter jet at the Syrian border.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov announced that Moscow will halt the existing visa-free regime starting Jan. 1, saying Turkey has become a conduit for terrorists and has been reluctant to share information with Moscow about Russian citizens accused of involvement in terrorist activities.
Turkey’s downing of the Russian military jet Tuesday, the first time in half a century that a NATO member shot down a Russian plane, has drawn a harsh response from Moscow. Russia has since restricted tourist travel, left Turkish trucks stranded at the border, confiscated large quantities of Turkish food imports and started preparing a raft of broader economic sanctions.
President Vladimir Putin has also ordered the deployment of the long-range S-400 air defense missile systems to a Russian air base in Syria just 30 miles south of the border with Turkey to help protect Russian warplanes, and the Russian military warned it would shoot down any aerial target that would pose a potential threat to its planes.
The military also moved the missile cruiser Moskva closer to the shore to help cover Russian bombers om combat missions.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan refused to apologize for the plane’s downing, which Ankara said came after it flew for 17 seconds into Turkish airspace.
At the same time, Erdogan said he has tried in vain to speak by phone to Putin to discuss the situation and expressed hope they could meet at the sidelines of a climate summit in Paris next Monday.
Putin’s foreign affairs adviser Yuri Ushakov said Friday the Kremlin had received Erdogan’s request for a meeting, but wouldn’t say whether such a meeting is possible.
Asked why Putin hasn’t picked up the phone to respond to Erdogan’s two phone calls, he said “we have seen that the Turkish side hasn’t been ready to offer an elementary apology over the plane incident.”
Turkey’s Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus voiced hope that Moscow would keep military and diplomatic channels open and added Ankara was mulling possible measures in response to Russian economic sanctions.
He said Turkey doesn’t think Russia would risk losing it as a partner.
Speaking to reporters after Friday’s Cabinet meeting, Kurtulmus said Turkey would not have shot down the plane if it had known it was Russian and said this is what Turkish officials have told senior Russian officials.
He added that if the pilots had responded to the Turkish warnings and informed them they were Russians, the shooting wouldn’t have occurred either.
In Moscow, Russian air force chief, Col.-Gen. Viktor Bondarev, reaffirmed Friday Turkey hadn’t issued any warnings on a previously agreed radio frequency before downing the plane. He insisted the Russian Su-24 bomber hadn’t veered into Turkey’s airspace, and also claimed that the Turkish F-16 fighter jet flew into Syria’s airspace for 40 seconds to down the Russian plane.
The tug-of-war between the two countries has been driven by a clash of their leaders’ personal ambitions.
