MOSCOW, March 26. /TASS/. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said he would have resigned after the incident with the downed Russian bomber if he was Turkish presidential spokesman.
"If I occupied this post and witnessed what happened, I would have resigned. Only six months ago our relations with Turkey could be regarded as benchmark. Unfortunately, what happened was a man-made misfortune. Ankara was the author of the misfortune and only it can address the consequences," Peskov said in an interview with TVC channel, which will air on Saturday night.
According to the spokesman, Russia is not ready to engage any contacts with the Turkish side now. "This is out of the question until Ankara does what it should in a situation like that," he added.
When answering the question whether Peskov himself often has to keep something back he said: "No one can make him tell lies but also no one can make him tell the whole truth."
Relations between Russia and Turkey hit a low after the incident on November 24, 2015, 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.
Russian President Putin 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.