Poetin’s reactie op het neerschieten van het gevechtsvliegtuig, afgelopen week, getuigt van intelligentie en ingetogen daadkracht. Er zijn in ons gevoel, op dit moment in de wereldpolitiek, niet zoveel mensen, die een dergelijke, rustige statement kunnen maken, terwijl ze feitelijk toch hun bloed voelen koken.. Enfin, dit is zijn verhaal:
“We told our US partners in advance where, when at what altitudes our pilots were going to operate. The US-led coalition, which includes Turkey, was aware of the time and place where our planes would operate. And this is exactly where and when we were attacked. Why did we share this information with the Americans? Either they don’t control their allies, or they just pass this information left and right without realizing what the consequences of such actions might be. We will have to have a serious talk with our US partners.”
In other words, just like in the tragic bombing of the Kunduz hospital by US forces (which has now been attributed to human error), so this time the target was a Russian plane which the US knew about well in advance, was targeted however not by the US itself, but by a NATO and US-alliance member, Turkey.
And while the deployment of the Russian SAM missiles was already known, the real message from today’s presser, the one that will be the topic of a private and “serious talk with Russia’s US partners”, is that Putin indirectly blames Obama for what happened on Tuesday realizing that Erdogan was merely the “executor”, one who is simply motivated to protect his (and his son’s) Islamic State oil routes
