Russian specialists who were servicing air defense missile systems S-400 in Turkey are coming back home as planned, there is no question of their deportation, Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Thursday, commenting on media publications about Ankara's alleged deportation of Russian technicians under pressure from the US side.
"All our specialists who were there are returning home as planned. They have finished all training of the Turkish personnel, the transfer of all the cases. So to present this as some kind of deportation or something else is completely wrong and incorrect," said the presidential spokesman.
He stressed that there was no US influence in this situation. "The Americans are putting a lot of pressure on the Turks, but the Turkish side has been quite consistent in maintaining its position," the Kremlin spokesman concluded.
Unacceptable demands
On May 28, US Assistant Secretary of State Wendy Sherman said in an interview with CNN TÜRK that the United States had presented Turkey with an alternative on the subject of Ankara's purchase of Russian S-400s. However, she did not specify what alternative she was referring to.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on May 31 that Turkey finds unacceptable the demands of other countries not to use the systems purchased from Russia.
Contract and pressure
Russia and Turkey signed a contract for Moscow to supply Ankara with S-400 SAMs in 2017. Turkey was the first NATO country to purchase these systems from Russia. Ankara's decision provoked a sharply negative reaction from the United States and the alliance as a whole. The United States has not stopped trying to get Turkey to give up its Russian SAMs. Due to the fact that Turkey is not yielding to pressure, Washington has earlier excluded Ankara from the US program for the production of the F-35 fifth-generation fighter-bombers. In addition, the US has long threatened Turkey with a number of unilateral sanctions, but was in no hurry to take these steps, as they feared further aggravation of relations with a key NATO ally, and Ankara warned that it would not leave the application of such restrictions without response. In December 2020, Washington imposed such sanctions.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: Vitaly Nevar / TASS
Based on materials from TASS