Downing of Russian military plane part of a chain of tragic events, says Putin
Remarks defuse threats from Russian defence ministry to retaliate over Syrian air disaster
Moscow/Jerusalem — President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that the shooting down of a Russian military plane near Syria’s coast was the result of a chain of tragic and chance circumstances. Russia’s defence ministry said earlier that the aircraft was shot down by Syrian anti-aircraft systems, but accused Israel of indirectly causing the incident, saying Israeli jets operating nearby had put the plane in the path of danger. The ministry threatened to retaliate over what it called a hostile act. Putin’s comments, made after talks with Hungary’s prime minister in Moscow, appeared to defuse the situation, though he said Russia needs to look further into what happened. "It looks most likely in this case that it was a chain of tragic chance events, because an Israeli aircraft did not shoot down our aircraft. But, without any doubt we need to seriously get to the bottom of what happened," Putin said. Moscow’s response, he said, would aim at securing the safety of Russian military personn...
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