Russia to slap new sanctions on Turkey

Moscow, Brussels: Russia will restrict imports of Turkish fruit and vegetables as part of a package of new sanctions following the downing of a Russian warplane by Turkey last week.

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich said the fruit and vegetable ban could be deferred for “several weeks” to allow Russian firms to find new suppliers and curb price rises, in comments reported on Monday by state news agency RIA Novosti.

The new measures announced at a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev also include a government veto on Turkish construction firms working in Russia and restrictions on road transport.

RIA reported that Medvedev called for sanctions to be “most effective for the Turkish side but minimally affecting our economic interests”.

In Brussels, Turkey’s prime minister said on Monday that his country won’t apologise to Russia for shooting down a warplane operating over Syria, saying the Turkish military was doing its job defending the national airspace.

Amid high tensions that have elicited concerns from the UN chief, Ahmet Davutoglu also said Turkey hopes Moscow will reconsider economic sanctions announced against Turkish interests in the wake of last week’s incident. The Turkish resort town of Antalya is “like a second home” to many Russian holidaymakers, he said, but refused to yield on Turkish security.

“No Turkish prime minister or president will apologise ... because of doing our duty,” Davutoglu told reporters after meeting Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg in Brussels. “Protection of Turkish airspace, Turkish borders is a national duty, and our army did their job to protect this airspace. But if the Russian side wants to talk, and wants to prevent any future unintentional events like this, we are ready to talk.”

Turkey is a member of the Nato alliance.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Sunday that he’s deeply concerned about tensions between Russia and Turkey after Turkish F-16s shot down a Russian warplane on November 24.

Davutoglu insisted a violation occurred, and said Turkey had repeatedly warned Russia about incursions into its airspace.

“We also made very clear that the Turkish-Syria border is a national security issue for Turkey. So it was a defensive action,” Davutoglu said. He repeated Turkish assertions that there were no Daesh fighters in the area.

“We have been telling our Russian friends that their bombardments against civilians on our border is creating new waves of refugees, which do not go to Russia or to any other country — but coming to Turkey,” he said.

“And Turkey, after every bombardment, [is] receiving more and more — tens of thousands of refugees from Syria,” Davutoglu added. “Turkey is a country paying the price of this crisis.”

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan’s office meanwhile said that he and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin have no meeting planned while they are both in Paris for a climate change summit.