Turkey claims Russia is trading oil with IS: Report

Turkey has claimed Russia is trading oil with the Islamic State, countering Moscow’s claims that Turkey’s president was personally involved in deals with the terrorist group.

In a televised speech in Ankara Thursday, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he had “proof” of Russia’s involvement with the Islamic State, adding that he would “reveal it to the world,” according to newswire AFP.

Erdogan’s claims are the latest in the country’s war of words which have marred formerly friendly ties between the two nations after Turkey shot down a Russian fighter jet on the Syrian border on November 24, killing one of the two pilots on board.

Russia has gone so far as to accuse Erdogan’s family of personal involvement in an illegal oil trade with the Islamic State — the terrorist group which is now the target of both Western and Russian airstrikes in Syria.

“We know who are stuffing pockets in Turkey and letting terrorists prosper from the sale of oil they stole in Syria,” Putin said in a televised address to over 1,000 delegates of the Russian Federal Assembly Thursday morning.

“The terrorists are using these receipts to recruit mercenaries, buy weapons and plan inhuman terrorist attacks against Russian citizens and against people in France, Lebanon, Mali and other states,” he said.

Erdogan has denied the claims as “slander.”

CNBC

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