Putin hopes broad antiterrorist coalition to be set up eventually

PARIS, November 30. /TASS/. President Vladimir Putin hopes a broad coalition for fighting with terrorism will be created eventually and petty interests pursued by some countries will recede backstage. Along with it, he pointed out the lack of readiness on the part of certain countries to join the antiterrorist fighting, saying the November 24 attack of the Turkish Air Force on the Russian Su-24M bomber offered a graphic confirmation of this unpreparedness. "But all the same, we’ll seek to form an efficient broad coalition," he told reporters. "It’s important to make sure that the regional, self-serving or financial interests recede backstage in the face of the global threat of terror." At present, however, some countries are pursuing their narrow interests, Putin said. "We have always spoken in support of this (broad coalition) but you can’t attain it while someone continues using terrorist organizations for achievement of fly-by-night objectives. Putin underlined continuing inflow of finances to terrorists in Syria. "We’ve now received the data confirming that oil is delivered to Turkey on an industrial scale form the places under the IS control where it is produced," he said. "And there are grounds to believe the decision to bring down our jet (the Sukhoi-24M) was dictated by the willingness to assure the safe delivery of that oil to the seaports where it is transshipped to tankers." "Defending Turkmens is only a pretext," Putin said. He recalled that Russian pilots often wrote the slogans like ‘For our guys’ or ‘For Paris’ on the missiles launched during combat sorties later. They had in mind retaliation to terrorists for the fellow-Russians who died aboard the A321 jet over the Sinai on October 31 or the French who fell victim to the explosions in Paris. "And this bomber (the Sukhoi-24M that was engaged in operations against the terrorists -- TASS) was brought down by the Turkish Air Force, so what kind of a broad coalition could we possibly speak about?" he asked with a rhetoric note. An F-16 fighter jet of the Turkish Air Force brought the Su-24M bomber down in the morning of Tuesday, November 24. Turkish defence officials claimed the Russian crew had intruded into Turkish airspace in the area of the Syrian-Turkish land-surface border. The Russian Defense Ministry says the Su-24M was flying over the Syrian territory and there was now intrusion in Turkish airspace. The crew - Lt Col Oleg Peshkov and Capt Konstantin Murakhtin -- managed to eject themselves from the aircraft but Lt Col Peshkov was killed in midair by gunfire opened by militants from among the ethnic Turkomans. Capt Murakhtin was rescued and taken to the Russian airbase at Humeymim, Latakia province. The search and rescue operation involved two Mi-8 helicopters. One of them was damaged by gunfire and made a forced landing. A contract marine serviceman died in the incident while the rest of the search party was evacuated to a safe place. The damaged helicopter was destroyed later by mortar fire from a land area controlled by militants. Read more