MOSCOW, December 20. /TASS/. Ankara is responsible for the safety of the Russian diplomats working in Turkey, President Vladimir Putin has asked Turkey’s authorities to provide security guarantees, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
"According to the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, the host country is responsible for the safety of foreign diplomatic missions," Peskov explained. "This is why the president [of Russia] has pointed to the need to receive guarantees from Turkey that the security of the Russian diplomatic missions will be ensured."
"Security measures at our diplomatic missions across the world are taken on a regular basis," the presidential spokesman added. "Now the president has ordered the special services and the foreign ministry to develop additional security measures, taking into consideration the horrible murder [of the Russian ambassador to Turkey]," the Kremlin spokesman said.
Mastermind behind the assassination
The killing of Russian Ambassador to Turkey Andrei Karlov plays into the hands of those who seek to impede the development of relations between Russia and Turkey, including on the Syrian settlement, Peskov told reporters.
"This is beneficial for those who want to drive a wedge between Russia and Turkey, hamper the normalization of relations of Russia and Turkey, both bilateral ones and also the normalization of those ties that allow stepping up and uniting efforts for the Syrian political settlement," Peskov said.
The Kremlin spokesman said it is up to the investigators to find out who is behind the ambassador’s murder. Peskov recalled that Russia’s investigative team has already arrived in Ankara. "Good specialists are among the members of this group," he stressed.
He also noted that the Russian and Turkish presidents, Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdogan, agreed in a phone conversation late on Monday that a joint investigation would be conducted. "Let’s be patient, the specialists will do their job," Peskov said.