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Turkey’s attack on Russian Su-24 plane was deliberately planned action — Russian lawmaker

Pushkov said, adding that such a possibility could be proved by support to Turkey voiced by U.S. President and NATO Secretary General, who said that Turkey had the right to protect its sovereignty

MOSCOW, November 25. /TASS/. Turkey’s attack on the Russian Su24 bomber could be a deliberately planned action coordinated with the United States, a Russian lawmaker said on Wednesday.

"It was a deliberate action and I think it was well-prepared," Alexei Pushkov, the chairman of the international committee of the Russian State Duma lower parliament house, said in an interview with the Rossiya-24 television channel. He underscored that long-term consequences of such actions taken by Turkey would be "very negative."

"I doubt that Turkey had contacted Washington and Washington gave the go-ahead to such actions but I think it is highly probable such Turkey’s reaction had been looked at in principle," Pushkov said, adding that such a possibility could be proved by support to Turkey voiced by U.S. President Barack Obama and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, who said that Turkey had the right to protect its sovereignty.

I don’t think apologies can change anything. We shouldn’t expect any apologies. We should restructure our relations with Turkey so that the future government was fully aware that such actions in respect of Russia are inadmissible," he said.

A Turkish F-16 fighter jet on Tuesday shot down a Russian Su-24M bomber that, according to Ankara, had allegedly violated Turkey’s airspace near the border with Syria. Moscow however says the Russian bomber was flying over Syria’s territory on a combat mission against the Islamic State. According to the Russian defense ministry, the Russian warplane had not crossed into Turkey. Russian President Vladimir Putin warned that the attack on the Russian bomber would have "very serious consequences" for the Russian-Turkish relations.