Posted on 12/04/2015 3:16:01 AM PST by Michael van der Galien
After requesting meetings with Russian government officials for a week -- and being rebuffed each time -- Turkey finally got what it wanted yesterday: Russia's foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, met with his Turkish counterpart, Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu. If Turkey hoped the meeting would ease the crisis resulting from its shootdown of a Russian plane last plane, it was sorely disappointed:
Putin stressed Russia is not planning to engage in military saber-rattling. “But if anyone thinks that having committed this awful war crime, the murder of our people, that they are going to get away with some measures concerning their tomatoes or some limits on construction and other sectors, they are sorely mistaken."
Putin added that the Turks will regret "more than once" shooting down the Russian jet.
One of the ways in which Putin is punishing Turkey is by suspending talks on a planned Turkish gas pipeline:
The Turkish Stream project would see four pipelines carrying Russian natural gas under the Black Sea, linking southern Russia to western Turkey. This would allow Russia to achieve its goal of delivering gas to Europe while avoiding Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the plan for the Turkish Stream pipeline in December 2014, after Russia junked its South Stream joint venture with EU firms, which would have taken gas to southern Europe and Bulgaria.
Strikingly, almost every step taken by Putin against Turkey hurts both countries: a clear indication that Putin is dead serious. And he should be: if Turkey resists his foreign policy, other countries -- especially in eastern Europe -- might be encouraged to do the same. Since Russian foreign policy is based on fear and intimidation, Putin can't allow that to happen. Meanwhile, Turkey is looking at Qatar and Azerbaijan for gas...
(Excerpt) Read more at pjmedia.com ...
The fact that Russia hasn’t shot down a Turkish jet means one of two things; Russia is being patient and using other means to retaliate, or, Turkey hasn’t sent one into harm’s way since the shoot-down. According to what I’ve read about the newest SAM system it was created to shoot down even low-flying F-16’s. I’d be curious to know how they will do that. I’d expect that the missile will be more maneuverable; more an automated fighter itself than a mere lock-on and kill weapon. Probably it’s networked with radars and guided the entire way to the target.
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