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Putin vows never to forget Turkish actions

Vladimir Putin made the remarks in his annual state of the nation address
Vladimir Putin made the remarks in his annual state of the nation address

Russian President Vladimir Putin has vowed never to forget Turkey's downing of one of his country's warplanes, as he lashed out once again at the Turkish government over the incident. 

"We will not forget this complicity with terrorists. We always considered and will always consider treachery to be the ultimate and lowest act. Let those in Turkey who shot our pilots in the back know this," Mr Putin told politicians in his annual state of the nation address. 

The two countries have been locked in a furious war of words over Turkey's downing of a Russian plane along its border with Syria on 24 November.

Russia has accused President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of profiting from the oil trade with so-called Islamic State jihadists.

"We know for example who in Turkey fills their pockets and allows terrorists to make money from the stolen oil in Syria," Mr Putin said. 

"It is precisely with this money that the bandits recruit mercenaries, buy arms and organise inhuman terrorist acts aimed against our citizens, the citizens of France, Lebanon, Mali and other countries."

Russia has announced sanctions against Turkey banning the import of some Turkish food and reintroducing visas for visitors from the country, and Mr Putin insisted Turkey would be made to regret its actions.

"We will not rattle our sabres. But if someone thinks that after committing heinous war crimes, the murder of our people, it will end with tomatoes and limitations in construction and other fields, then they are deeply mistaken," Mr Putin said. 

"We will not stop reminding them of what they did and they will not stop regretting their actions." 

Mr Putin said that given a push to improve relations with Turkey in recent years, Russia did not understand why its rival in the Syria war had downed its jet.

"Only Allah, most likely, knows why they did this. And evidently Allah decided to punish the ruling clique in Turkey by depriving them of their intelligence and reason."

Turkey has hit back at Mr Putin's allegations, with Mr Erdogan saying his country has proof Russia was involved in illegal oil trade with IS.

He also described Russian allegations about his family as "immoral".

In a televised address, Mr Erdogan said: "We have the proof in our hands. We will reveal it to the world."

"Look, Russia has to prove that the Turkish republic buys oil from Daesh, otherwise this is a slander," he added, using an Arabic acronym for IS.

"The immoral side of this issue is involving my family in the affair," Mr Erdogan added. 

He repeated that he would resign if Russia proved the allegation.  

Talks on Turkstream pipeline suspended

With tensions continuing, the two countries have suspended talks on their joint TurkStream project to pipe gas from Russia to Turkey and southern Europe.

"Currently talks are suspended," Russian energy minister Alexander Novak said, quoted by RIA Novosti news agency.

He added that an intergovernmental commission on trade and economic cooperation in charge of the project has stopped meeting as part of Russia's retialiatory measures against Ankara.

The TurkStream project would see four pipelines carrying Russian natural gas under the Black Sea, linking southern Russia to western Turkey.

This would allow Russia to achieve its goal of delivering gas to Europe while avoiding Ukraine.

Mr Putin announced plans for the pipeline in December 2014, after Russia junked its South Stream joint venture with EU firms, which would have taken gas to southern Europe and Bulgaria.

The head of Russia's state gas giant Gazprom, Alexei Miller, told journalists that Turkey would have to ask Russia to renew talks on TurkStream.