Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that Russia has received additional intelligence confirming that oil from deposits controlled by ISIS goes through Turkey on an industrial scale.
Speaking on the sidelines of the climate change summit in Paris, he said that Moscow had grounds to suspect that the Su-24 was downed by Turkish jets on November 24 to secure illegal oil deliveries from Syria to Turke
RT reports:
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“At the moment we have received additional information confirming that that oil from the deposits controlled by Islamic State militants enters Turkish territory on industrial scale,” he said.
“We have every reason to believe that the decision to down our plane was guided by a desire to ensure security of this oil’s delivery routes to ports where they are shipped in tankers,” Putin said.
Terrorists have been abusing the visa-free regime between Russia and Turkey to move freely, the Russian leader said adding that Ankara failed to address the issue after Russia raised it.
“We have been asking [Ankara] for a long time to pay attention” to the issue that some of the terrorists active in separate regions of Russia, including in northern Caucuses, have been “emerging on Turkish territory,” Putin said.
Moscow asked Ankara to “cease the practice,” however, “we have traced that they are located on the territory of the Turkish Republic, are living in regions guarded by special security services and police, and they, using the visa-free regime, emerge on our territory and we continue fighting them,” he added.
Answering a question on whether Moscow wants to form a broad anti-terrorist coalition, Putin said Russia has always supported this initiative. “But this cannot be done while someone continues to use several terrorist organizations to reach their immediate goals.”
Niamh Harris