Russia to reassess Moscow-Ankara relations: FM

MOSCOW -- Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Wednesday that Turkey's downing of a Russian Su-24 warplane will lead to Russia's reassessment and revision of its relations with Turkey.

"As far as the current stage of our relations is concerned, we'll seriously reassess and revise our relations in light of the incident," Lavrov said at a briefing broadcasted live by Russia 24 TV channel.

According to Lavrov, the downing of the Su-24 "looks like a planned provocation."

"We have serious doubts that it was intentional," Lavrov said.

"Questions arise as to why Turkey did not use the emergency contact line established between related departments of the two countries since the start of Russian airstrikes in Syria, before or after the downing of the Su-24," Lavrov added.

"We are not going to war with Turkey. Our attitude towards Turkish people has not changed. But we have questions referring to actions of the current Turkish government," Lavrov said, noting that accumulating factors in Turkey "represent direct terrorist threats to Russian citizens."

He spoke of Turkish Foreign Minister Feridun Sinirlioglu's phone call with condolences and regret over the incident as well as the death of one of the pilots.

The Russian Foreign Ministry stressed that no agreement was made on a future meeting between the two ministers.

Lavrov also voiced support to the proposal by French President Francois Hollande on the need to close the Turkish-Syrian border to stop the flow of militants and terrorist support.

Earlier in the day, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said situations of all joint projects with Turkey would be deeply analyzed.

"Russia doubts Turkey's intent to fight terrorists together, at least on the current stage. But this obviously doesn't apply to other members of the US-led coalition," Peskov said.

Peskov stressed that the Turkish action is "a breach of international law and an extremely unfriendly step," considering the Russian Su-24 was shot down in Syrian airspace.

Stressing that the Russian airstrike missions in Syria would continue and have already cut illegal deliveries of oil and petroleum products that financed terrorists, Peskov said the Syrian-Turkish border areas won't be excluded from Russia's list of terrorist targets for strikes.

The Russian Su-24 warplane was shot down Tuesday by Turkish air force as Ankara accused it of violating Turkish airspace and ignoring multiple warnings.

Russia refuted that objective means of control showed the plane was over Syrian territory during all of the flight.

Russia is taking urgent measures to ensure the safety of Russian pilots and aircraft in Syria.

The Defense Ministry announced the deployment of a new-generation S-400 Triumf anti-aircraft missile system in Syria, while Moskva guard missile cruiser was in new combat duty position near Syria's Latakia port, ready "to destroy any air target of potential danger to Russian aircraft."