GORKI (Moscow Region), (Sputnik) – Russia’s limitation measures against Turkey are necessary and not directed at the Turkish people, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said Monday.
“I would like to draw your attention once again to the fact that our response and necessary acts that we have taken in interest of providing security to our people and as a reaction to the aggressive behavior of the Turkish Republic,” Medvedev said at a Cabinet meeting.
“The special measures will actually touch a large part of economic relations, so we will act pragmatically as was understood from the president’s decree, in particular: so that decisions that we make are felt to the maximum for the Turkish side and touch minimally our economic interests,” Medvedev stated.
According to the prime minister, the list of Russia’s limitation measures against Turkey may be expanded if necessary.
“The measures that are currently included in the decree project are just the first step. We’ll see how it goes. We have the ability within our powers of creating orders to expand the list of goods that can be banned from being imported into the Russian Federation, extend the list of officials who are banned from entering the Russian Federation, and take other measures directed at limiting or ending cooperation with the Turkish Republic,” Medvedev said.
“This will all be done if necessary,” he added.
Dmitry Medvedev also instructed the government to contact partners in the Eurasian Economic Union in regard to limiting transportation from Turkey into Russia.
“I should ask you to get in contact with our partners from the Eurasian Economic Union and discuss with them issues tied to banning or limiting vehicular transportation whose point of destination is the Russian Federation, as well as transits through Russia so as to avoid problems such as manipulation, which we, unfortunately, ran into with the bans imposed on imports from the European Union,” Medvedev said addressing First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov and Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich.
On Saturday, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree to increase national security and introduce economic measures against Ankara. The measures ban or restrict activities of Turkish organizations in Russia, as well as ban Russian employers from hiring Turkish citizens beginning January 1, 2016.
The measures also target charter air travel between the two countries, as well as ban or restrict certain imports from Turkey.
The economic measures follow the November 24 downing of a Russian plane in Syria by Turkish military aircraft. Ankara claimed that it downed the Su-24 because it violated Turkish airspace. Both the Russian General Staff and the Syrian Air Defense Command confirmed that the Russian bomber never crossed into Turkish airspace.
