Russia: Here's How We'll Punish Turkey

A tug-of-war over a Russian warplane shot down by a Turkish fighter jet at the border with Syria escalated Thursday, with Moscow drafting a slew of economic sanctions and the Turkish president saying on a defiant note that his military is ready to do the same if another air intrusion happens. Since the plane was shot down, Russia has already restricted tourism, left Turkish trucks stranded at the border, and announced the confiscation of Turkish food imports. On Thursday, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev ordered the draft of formal sanctions against Turkey, which will include "restrictions and bans on Turkish economic structures operating in Russian territory and "restrictions and bans on deliveries of products, including foodstuffs."

Moscow has also responded the plane's downing by ordering the deployment of powerful long-range air defense missiles to a Russian air base in Syria and moving a navy missile cruiser closer to the shore to help protect Russian warplanes. The BBC reports that on Thursday, the Russian military suspended all communications channels with their Turkish counterparts—including an accident prevention hot line. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, meanwhile, was in no mood to apologize. Faced with the same airspace violation today, Turkey would give the same response," he said. “It’s the country that carried out the violation which should question itself and take measures to prevent it from happening again, not the country that was subjected to a violation." (More Turkey stories.)