Konstantin Kosachev expressed regret that a strike of a Turkish missile “in a moment destroyed everything that had been developed in Russian-Turkish relations for years: trust and partnership”
A senior Russian lawmaker from the upper house of parliament suggested freezing all interstate contacts with Turkey following the crash of a Russian Sukhoi Su-24 bomber after a missile strike from a Turkish fighter.
Konstantin Kosachev, the head of the Federation Council’s international affairs committee, wrote on his Facebook page that Turkey chose itself a place “in the modern history of the fight between good and evil” on its own. “And it turns out that this place is beyond the antiterrorism coalition. Wishing or not, it is with terrorists,” he said.
Kosachev said “regretfully, there is no hope for apologies on the part of the Turkish side,” adding that it is time to wait for “reaction from our potential partners on the global antiterrorism coalition,” that is NATO member states.
“As regards interstate contacts with Turkey, I think it is necessary to suspend them until better times,” he said.
Kosachev expressed regret that a strike of a Turkish missile “in a moment destroyed everything that had been developed in Russian-Turkish relations for years: trust and partnership.”
“Distrust and enmity have returned. An epic mistake by the Turkish leadership that is worse than a crime. Including before its own people,” he said, adding that Ankara’s mistake “will be used by the terrorists which the Russian bomber was fighting while protecting, ultimately, Turkey.”
“I sincerely regret that such a smashing blow has been dealt to our intersociety relations. Russians have got used to seeing in Turks friends and partners rather than those who are ready, in an unenforced situation, to immediately deal a fatal blow against our people who had no slightest hostile intentions against Turkey or its people,” the lawmaker said.
