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No plans for Putin’s meeting with Erdogan in Paris — Kremlin

Peskov stressed that no other contacts with the Turkish leader, including a phone conversation, are included in Putin’s schedule
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov Sergei Fadeichev/TASS
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov
© Sergei Fadeichev/TASS

PARIS, November 30. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin is not planning to meet with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Paris on the sidelines of the UN climate conference, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday.

"The meeting with Erdogan (in Paris) is not planned, this meeting is not being discussed. There will be no such a meeting," Peskov told reporters.

Peskov stressed that no other contacts with the Turkish leader, including a phone conversation, are included in Putin’s schedule.

The Turkish president has tried to call Putin twice and later sent an official request for the meeting with the Russian leader at the Paris conference on Monday.

Relations between Russia and Turkey hit a low after the incident on November 24 when a Turkish F-16 fighter jet brought down a Russian Sukhoi Su-24M bomber, which, Ankara alleges, violated the country’s airspace near the Syrian border. The Russian Defense Ministry said the warplane was flying over Syrian territory and had never violated Turkey’s airspace.

Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov gave a simple explanation for Putin’s reluctance to speak to Erdogan. "We can see a lack of readiness on the part of Turkey to offer elementary apologies in connection with the incident (downing of the Russian bomber)."

Putin has warned that Turkey’s attack will have "serious consequences" for Russian-Turkish relations. Putin said Ankara’s attack against the Russian Sukhoi Su-24 plane, which took part in Russia’s antiterrorism operation in Syria and did not present a threat to Turkey, was a "stab in Russia’s back" delivered by terrorists’ accomplices.

On Sunday, Putin signed a decree on a provisional ban on employing Turkish citizens in Russia as of January 1, 2016. The same decree suspends visa-free traveling between the two countries and imposes restrictions on the imports of certain commodities from Turkey.