Turkey was 'punished by Allah with lack of sanity when it shot down Russian plane', says Vladimir Putin
'We will remind them not once about what they have done, and they will feel sorry about it more than once'
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Your support makes all the difference.Vladimir Putin has said Allah was punishing “the ruling clique in Turkey by depriving it of reason or logic” when it shot down a Russian war plane.
Delivering the annual state of the nation address to both houses of Parliament in Moscow, Russia’s President Putin said “probably Allah alone knows why they did it,” reports the BBC.
He added: “And evidently Allah decided to punish the ruling clique in Turkey, by depriving it of any reason or logic.”
In today's speech, Mr Putin branded Turkey’s shooting down of a Russian jet a “treacherous war crime” and said Turkey was responsible for the “murder of our people” and accused it of buying oil from Isis – a claim Turkey denies.
The Russian warplane was shut down by Turkish authorities last month after they said the plane violated Turkish airspace for 17seconds, despite repeated warnings to Russia.
The Kremlin dismissed these claims as “rubbish” and insists the aircraft had stayed in Syrian airspace, from where it is carrying out airstrikes.
Mr Putin warned Turkey that Russia planned to adopt further measures against it for the incident - beyond the sanctions it has already imposed which include banning imports of Turkish fruit and vegetables, and preventing Russians from going on package holidays to Turkey.
He said: “We are not planning to engage in military sabre-rattling.
“But if anyone thinks that having committed this awful war crime, the murder of our people, that they are going to get away with some measures concerning their tomatoes or some limits on construction and other sectors, they are sorely mistaken.
“We will remind them not once about what they have done, and they will feel sorry about it more than once.”
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has denied that his country is involved in trading oil with Isis, but the Russian Defense Ministry yesterday released satellite and aerial images showing hundreds of oil trucks streaming across the border to prove the claims.
Mr Putin said: “We know that Turkey is filling its pocket and allows terrorists to earn money by selling oil stolen from Syria.
“For that money the bandits are recruiting mercenaries, buying weapons and staging cruel terror attacks aimed against our citizens, as well as citizens of France, Lebanon, Mali and other countries.”
Mr Putin added that countries “should not apply double standards on terror” or use terrorist groups for their own ends.
Additional reporting by the Associated Press and Reuters
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