RUSSIAN PRESIDENT VLADIMIR PUTIN SAYS RUSSIA WILL NOT FORGET DOWNED JET

USPA NEWS - Vladimir Putin used his annual address to Russia´s political elite to warn Turkey´s leaders that Moscow would never forget last week´s downing of a Russian fighter jet. In a state of the nation speech, broadcast live on Russian television, he said that 'if anyone thinks Russia's reaction will be...

Vladimir Putin used his annual address to Russia´s political elite to warn Turkey´s leaders that Moscow would never forget last week´s downing of a Russian fighter jet. In a state of the nation speech, broadcast live on Russian television, he said that 'if anyone thinks Russia's reaction will be limited to trade sanctions, they are deeply mistaken'.

Russia has implemented a series of economic sanctions against Turkey, including banning fruit and vegetable imports and ordering Russian tour operators not to send tourists to the country. Putin emphasised that this limited response was not an attempt to move on and start afresh, however....'There will not be a nervous, hysterical reaction, that would be dangerous for us and for the whole world,' he said. 'We will not engage in sabre rattling. But if people think that after carrying out a cynical war crime, killing our people, they´ll get away with a tomato ban or some limits in the construction sector, they´re very wrong. We will keep remembering what they did. And they will keep regretting it.' (The Guardian)

From Putin´s point of view, the dismemberment of Ukraine is no longer a priority. Riven by infighting and increasingly unpopular, the pro-Western government in Kiev may self-destruct all on its own. An eastern sliver of the country is firmly under the control of Russian-backed separatists. And if the Kremlin can appear to be an invaluable partner in fighting Islamic State, European countries may find it more difficult to renew sanctions imposed because Russia´s intervention in Ukraine. (Reuters)

Putin started his annual address by thanking Russian members of the forces 'fighting international terrorism'. He said Russia had known what terrorism was over the years and said the current Russian campaign in Syria was 'a fight for freedom, truth and justice'. The widows of the marine and pilot killed after Turkey shot the plane down were in the audience. (The Guardian)

There was also a minute's silence for Russian victims of terrorism, including the 224 who died when a bomb blew up a Russian airliner over Egypt's Sinai desert on 31 October....On Wednesday Russia's defence ministry displayed satellite images it said showed columns of trucks loaded with oil crossing from IS territory in Iraq and Syria into Turkey....Comparing Russia's campaign with the World War Two struggle against Nazism, Mr Putin said "we are facing a destructive, barbaric ideology“¦ we need a single powerful fist, a united front" against IS. (BBC)

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