ST. PETERSBURG, November 27. /TASS/. Turkey did everything to ruin mutually beneficial cooperation with Russia, Speaker of the Federation Council [upper house of the Russian parliament - TASS] Valentina Matvienko said on Friday.
"We treated Turkey as our neighbor, partner, as a friendly nation; we developed mutually beneficial economic cooperation. Turkey did everything to ruin this mutually beneficial cooperation with the Russian Federation," the speaker said.
- Russian lawmaker Pushkov approves suspension of visa-free regime with Turkey
- Islamic State gunmen receive weapons from Turkey — Syria FM
- Expert: Russia should act with caution when introducing of sanctions against Turkey
- Russia ready to coordinate steps to block Turkish-Syrian border — FM
- Turkey’s F-16 that downed Russian bomber was in Syrian airspace for 40 seconds — commander
- Lavrov: Turkish leaders cross the line of acceptable
- Russian football club cancels training session in Turkey
"Certainly, the Russian side rightfully waited for a serious and thorough investigation [of the incident with Russian Su-24 aircraft - TASS], measures undertaken to prevent such actions and for apologies to be brought by the Turkish side to Russia. Nothing of that took place," Matvienko said.
This situation sparked "the deepest resentment in the Russian society," she said. "I know Russian tourists refuse to go to Turkey. These are 4 mln tourists a year; Turkey earns billions of dollars from the Russian tourism," Matvienko added.
The Turkish Air Force’s F-16 fighter on November 24 shot down a Russian Sukhoi Su-24M bomber that Ankara alleges violated the country’s airspace on the border with Syria. The Su-24M crew ejected but one of the two pilots was killed by fire from the ground. The second pilot was rescued as a result of a 12-hour operation. During evacuation of the Su-24M crew, a Mi-8 helicopter was lost and a contract marine was killed.