Putin says Turkey downing Russia’s jet was ‘stab in the back’

President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday (November 24) called Turkey’s downing of a Russian fighter jet “a stab in the back” carried out by the accomplices of terrorists, saying the incident would have serious consequences for Moscow’s relations with Ankara.

“Today’s loss for us was a stab in the back from terrorist accomplices. I can’t qualify this in any other way. Our jet was shot down over the territory of Syria by the air-to-air missile from a Turkish jet F16. It fell on the territory of Syria four kilometres from the Turkish border,” Putin said.

“In any case neither our pilots nor our jet posed any threat to Turkish Republic. This is an obvious thing. They were conducting an operation fighting ISIS,” he added.

Putin was speaking in the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi before a meeting with Jordan’s King Abdullah.