Discussion: Putin Orders Sanctions Against Turkey After Downing Of Jet

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Discussion for article #243248

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The people of Turkey and Russia voted for “tough guys” and now they have them. And all that comes with them. Enjoy.

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This is really going to confuse Republican pundits. They aren’t going to know which Authoritarian’s leg to hump.

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It took Vladimir five days to figure out what the hell he was going to do about it, and he comes up with some minor economic sanctions (except for the guest worker thing – that could be significant if there are lots of Turkish guest workers in Russia) and putting a SAM battery in Syria to “protect” their aircraft.

Pretty weak tea for Uncle Vlad.

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Sorry Vlad, the Polish make better vodka anyway…

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I think this was a conundrum for both tough guy leaders. The incursion into Turkey’s airspace was minimal and brief, so I imagine Turkey was trying to make some kind of point. But the history of Russo-Turkey conflicts have not been in Turkey’s favor. Turkey saying they regretted the incident is as close to an apology as Russia’s going to get… Vlad should accept it and declare victory.

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The airspace incursion was probably not the biggest problem. Turkey really doesn’t like Assad, and Russia is openly propping him now. That includes bombing anti-Assad rebels supported by Turkey. It’s probably a good guess that Turkey has a problem with that.

It’s clear from the behavior of the Turkmen (not Turkish, but related) rebels on the ground that they consider Russians to be their enemies equal to Assad.

Then again maybe the Turks thought it was a Syrian plane when they shot it down. It’s not like either side is particularly trustworthy here.

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I can think of several reasons to crack down on Turkey - buying ISIS oil hence funding ISIS, letting ISIS recruits freely pass through Turkey, bombing Kurds that are fighting ISIS - but this jet-downing ain’t one of them.

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Let’s keep this in perspective.

Russia is not going to freeze out one of its biggest oil and natural gas customers without feeling some economic pain in their energy-dependent economy, and some of the other sanctions – limiting Turkish exports into Russia – might also have a bit to do with their shrinking economy. Same with he prohibition on Russian tourism to Turkey – the faltering Russian economy might have largely already taken care of that.