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Naryshkin: Russian aircraft downing, a criminal act of Turkey; Russia is entitled to military response
Speaker of the Russian State Duma Sergei Naryshkin on Friday evening said that the Su-24 Russian aircraft downing by Turkey represents a "criminal act" of the leadership of this state and that Russia is entitled to a military response."It is a crime, it is a criminal act on behalf of Turkey's leadership, it is a deliberate crime targeting our military and this act must be punished. We know the names of those who did this, they must be announced and then people must stand trial," Naryshkin said in an interview granted to Digi 24 TV Romanian private television broadcaster.
He pointed out that Russia will respond to this gesture of Turkey.
"The response from the Russian side will definitely come, as international law provides, and Russia is also entitled to a military response. Yesterday additional military sources were allotted, S400 Triumph, the most performing anti-missile defence system, which has the role to ensure the security of the flights of Russian aircraft of our military and air forces, which have the mission to destroy the infrastructure of terrorists of the so-called Islamic State and some other organisations operating on Syria's territory," the Russian official maintained.
He pointed out that the Russian Federation will also react economy-wise against Turkey, saying that Ankara's gesture generated "an irreparable damage" to the relations between the two states.
"What Turkey's political leadership has done, it must be aware that by killing two Russian military it brought a great damage to the Russian-Turkish relations and I believe that this thing isn't to the interest of the Turkish people, because we had and still have very good friendship relations between our peoples. Over the past ten years the development level of the economic, cultural and humanitarian relations between our countries was a high one and we have done very many things together and we still have common perspectives. However, this attack of the Turkish government has generated an irreparable damage and we don't know now how long it will take to resume and recover our relations," Sergei Naryshkin showed.
When asked what evidence Moscow could provide, besides the testimony of the surviving pilot, that the aircraft hadn't entered the Turkish airspace, Naryshkin said that there are "objective control sources" that show that the Russian aircraft was returning to the base through the Syrian airspace.
"Now there are very many sources that allow an objective control to see the route of the aircraft and these objective control sources confirmed that the bomber which had ended its mission of destroying the terrorist infrastructure was returning to base on a route over Syria's territory. Moreover, the F16 Turkish aircraft, the moment it treacherously hit from the rear (...) the bomber which was void of ammunition, was in Syria's airspace, and this thing is also proven by the US satellites," he said.
Speking about the anti-missile shield at Deveselu the Russian official said that is the choice of Romania's political leadership and his country respects it. Instead, he pointed out he did not believe that the Deveselu system is the Romanian people's choice.
"This is the choice of the political leadership of Romania and we accept this choice. (...) The choice of locating that anti-missile shield there is Romania's choice and we only respect that choice. However, I do not think this is the choice of the Romanian people. Under these condition, we, the Russian Federation, must take all steps to ensure the security of our citizens and territory," Sergey Naryshkin said when asked what he thought about the Deveselu shield.
He said that for extending the NATO system, a lot of money is being spent from the budgets of all the member states, including from Romania's citizens.
"All this history about the NATO enlargement that has been lasting for 20 years is built on some untrue things. It has been said, many times, that the threat comes from the Russian Federation. True threats will come not from Russia but from others and the Paris attacks have confirmed everything we said in those 20 years. Neither the NATO infrastructure nor the other anti-missile shields have saved Paris from those terror attacks. We must remember those unpleasant and regrettable lessons," the speaker of Russia's State Duma concluded.
Naryshkin attended the meeting of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation Organisation (PABSEC) organised in Bucharest on Thursday and Friday. Russia took over the PABSEC chairmanship for the next six months.