Moscow slapped sanctions on Ankara on Friday as the war of words over a downed Russian warplane escalated, with Turkish strongman Recep Tayyip Erdogan warning Russia not to “play with fire”.
Russia announced it was halting a visa-free regime for Turkish visitors, after threatening a raft of retaliatory economic measures to punish the NATO member state.
Tuesday’s incident has sent recriminations flying between two rival players in the Syrian war just as countries such as France are pushing for a broader coalition to try to defeat the Islamic State group.
“We advise Russia not to play with fire,” Erdogan said in a speech in Ankara, lashing out at Russia’s response to the downing as well as its support of the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Erdogan nevertheless said he wanted a direct meeting with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin when the two leaders are in Paris next week for the UN climate summit.
But Moscow responded coolly, saying Turkey has yet to apologise for shooting down the jet on the Syrian border.
Turkey says the Su-24 warplane strayed into its airspace and ignored repeated warnings but Russia insisted it did not cross from Syria.
It is thought to be the first downing of a Russian plane by a NATO member in more than half a century.
One of the pilots was shot dead in Syria after parachuting out of the burning plane while the second was found safe and sound, but one Russian soldier was killed in a rescue operation.
Russia also said on Friday it would suspend its visa-free regime for Turkish nationals from January 1 as it retaliates against Ankara for the downing of a Russian warplane.
Moscow has ruled out any military response against NATO member Turkey.
Russia buries soldier killed in rescue of warplane pilot
Russia on Friday buried with full military honours a soldier killed in Syria during the operation to rescue pilots of the warplane shot down by Turkey.
Alexander Pozynich was killed on Tuesday when his Mi-8 helicopter was fired on by rebels and had to make an emergency landing in Syrian neutral territory, the defence ministry said. Pozynich, 29, a naval marine and contract soldier with 10 years’ experience, was laid to rest in his hometown of Novocherkassk in southern Russia. President Vladimir Putin awarded him the Order of Valour medal posthumously for his role in the operation to retrieve the surviving pilot of the SU-24 plane downed by Turkey on Tuesday. Around 1,000 people, including Pozynich’s comrades and Cossacks, piled flowers by his coffin as he lay in state in the city’s theatre, before his burial at a military memorial site called the Avenue of Glory.