Russia wants limited Turkish military action in Syria

"We never believed it was the decision of the president to shoot down the plane. We know that outside forces were involved with that decision," said Leonid Reshetnikov, the head of the Russian Institute for Strategic Studies (RISS).

He was speaking on Oct. 31 at a conference organized by the Ankara Policy Center on the future of Turkish-Russian relations.

His statement about the downing of the Russian plane in November 2015 is problematic for several reasons.

First of all, it is awfully humiliating to hear a foreign observer tell you that action taken by your military was ordered by foreign powers, not by your state's officials. 

I have not come across any Turkish official openly saying the downing of the plane was the making of outside forces. They only went as far as to say that the pilots who shot down the plane have since been arrested on charges of being a member of the Fetullahist Terrorist Organization (FETÖ). That in itself is not enough to conclude that the incident was the making of outside forces.

Even if what Reshetnikov said was true, would it not be humiliating for Turks to admit it and feel relieved that we can now have peaceful relations with Russia, as the incident was not the making of the Turkish government? What is more embarrassing is to see that those who have allowed the Gülenists become so powerful are not even ashamed to see the Russians comfortably disclosing Turkey's weaknesses.

Still, another obvious problem with Reshetnikov's statement is the question of why Russia chose to retaliate severely via sanctions, rather than telling the Turks that the downing was the work of outside forces.

Before I address that, let me continue with messages given by the head of RISS. They are...