Russia announced on Friday that it will suspend its visa-free regime with Turkey effective January 1, a continuation of retaliation for the downing of a Russian fighter jet by Turkish air forces earlier this week.
Since Tuesday’s incident, Russia has already restricted tourist travel from Turkey, stranded Turkish trucks at the border, confiscated large quantities of Turkish food imports and started preparing a set of broader economic sanctions.
Turkey for its part refuses to apologize for the plane incident. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Russia should apologize for violating Turkish airspace, with Turkish military saying that the Russian jet had been in Turkish airspace for 17 seconds before it was shot. However, Erdogan has made attempts unsuccessfully to speak with Russian President Vladimir Putin about the incident.
Russian Foreign Minisiter Sergei Lavrov said that Putin was unwilling to speak to Erdogan at the moment because “we have seen that the Turkish side hasn’t been ready to offer an elementary apology over the plane incident.”
It is reported that Erdogan plans to try and speak with Putin at the climate summit in Paris next week but also has been quoted saying during a speech in Bayburt, Turkey, “It is playing with fire to go as far as mistreating our citizens who have gone to Russia.” “We really attach a lot of importance to our relations with Russia…We don’t want these relations to suffer harm in any way.”
Since Tuesday’s incident, Russia has already restricted tourist travel from Turkey, stranded Turkish trucks at the border, confiscated large quantities of Turkish food imports and started preparing a set of broader economic sanctions.
Turkey for its part refuses to apologize for the plane incident. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Russia should apologize for violating Turkish airspace, with Turkish military saying that the Russian jet had been in Turkish airspace for 17 seconds before it was shot. However, Erdogan has made attempts unsuccessfully to speak with Russian President Vladimir Putin about the incident.
Russian Foreign Minisiter Sergei Lavrov said that Putin was unwilling to speak to Erdogan at the moment because “we have seen that the Turkish side hasn’t been ready to offer an elementary apology over the plane incident.”
It is reported that Erdogan plans to try and speak with Putin at the climate summit in Paris next week but also has been quoted saying during a speech in Bayburt, Turkey, “It is playing with fire to go as far as mistreating our citizens who have gone to Russia.” “We really attach a lot of importance to our relations with Russia…We don’t want these relations to suffer harm in any way.”