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Putin Says Turkey Downed Russian Plane to Protect Oil Interests

HeadlineDec 01, 2015

Russian President Vladimir Putin has accused Turkey of downing a Russian warplane last week because it wanted to protect the flow of oil from ISIL-controlled territories in Iraq and Syria. Turkey said it shot down the plane on November 24 after warning the Russian pilots they were in Turkish airspace. But Russia says the plane did not stray from Syrian airspace. Turkey has long been accused of permitting ISIL to export hundreds of millions of dollars of oil into Turkey, where it is sold on the black market. Speaking at the U.N. global climate conference in Paris Monday, Putin said Turkey’s motives were to protect this oil flow.

President Vladimir Putin: “We have just now received additional information, confirmed, unfortunately, that from the place of the oil production, which is controlled by ISIL and other terrorist organizations, that oil in huge quantities, on an industrial scale, is being supplied to the territory of Turkey. And we have every reason to believe that the decision on whether to shoot down our plane was dictated by the desire to ensure the safety of these oil supply routes to Turkish territory.”

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