Seems to get that he is being insulted now.

Turkey will not officially respond to Russian President Vladimir Putin's latest remarks on Ankara's downing of a Russian jet in which he called the act "hostile", according to Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu.

Local media reported the Turkish official as saying he does not take Putin's latest statements seriously as he labelled them as "undiplomatic and insulting".

The Turkish rebuttal came as Davutoglu returned from a meeting in Brussels with eight EU leaders where the refugee crisis, counterterrorism and the war in Syria were discussed.

On Thursday, Putin escalated the rhetoric by saying that Turks had decided to "lick the Americans in a certain place" as he accused of a "creeping Islamisation of Turkey that would have Ataturk rolling in his grave".


http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/12/turkey-respond-putin-insulting-remarks-151219093832306.html

Then again, maybe we will do something. We can't take this lying down.

Turkish and Ukrainian media have reported that President Erdogan has met with two of the organizers of the so-called Crimean blockade. Earlier this week, another of the masterminds behind the failed 'food' and 'electricity' blockades promised that the radicals would organize a 'naval blockade'. Is a provocation imminent? What will Turkey's role be?

On Thursday, the Russian-language edition of the Turkish state-run Anadolu Agency news service unceremoniously reported that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had met with Mustafa Dzhemilev, one of the key organizers of the so-called 'food' and 'electricity' blockades of Crimea.

Erdogan and Dzhemilev, a Ukrainian lawmaker and key figure of the Mejlis movement, which claims to represent the Crimean Tatar community, met in a hotel in the southern Turkish city of Konya, speaking for about 40 minutes, Anadolu Agency reported. Deputy Prime Minister Yalcin Akdogan was also said to be in attendance.

According to Ukraine's QHA news service, Refat Chubarov, another of Mejlis's leaders, was also at the meeting, and that following the closed-door meeting, the Ukrainian politicians held a second working meeting, this time with Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu.

http://sputniknews.com/europe/20151219/1032016827/erdogan-crimean-naval-blockade.html

You will note that Sputnik is not at all reluctant to spread this sort of speculation.

speculation here, bemildred.

Potential Russia-NATO Black Sea naval confrontation, we might speculate.

It seems to me Russia's posture is still defensive, although showing teeth. For russia the best propaganda tells the truth, or some of it, on the world stage, in the face of so much spin...

My point is that they are not afraid of it, the Russian press, rather they encourage it sort of gleefully. It contrasts a good deal with the fear-based reporting I get here.

Edit: they love conspiracy theories, whereas here we don't.

But also, I think, by putting such facts openly on the table for all, especially international diplomatic circles, to see, if able and willing to see, might help avoid such conflict, one might hope.

You will no doubt recall recent history. Putin's Russia first attempted to approach and do business with the West, and was largely rebuffed. Nato encroached ever-closer. Russia first warned, then went increasingly on the defensive. A defensive posture now baring teeth...

I am getting more at an attitude, I don't think I really know what I mean, it's not like the US gov't is reluctant to speculate, but it's different. The pervasive ribald cynicism, it was there in Putin's comments. US pols would never consider being so unserious. They obsess about everything and nothing, they invent things to obsess about. Look at this bullshit over who was looking at whose voter data. Obama is outstanding and remarkable here merely because he is thoughtful and well-spoken, doesn't get worked up over every little thing.

Putin on the other hand was trolling the world, he was trolling the reporters. I'll bet our politicians here would love to do that but rarely feel safe doing it. You can see the reporters were not at all used to it, gullible as young trout.

Your second point is well-taken, I am sure they know.

TEHRAN (FNA)- Top Military Aide to the Iranian Supreme Leader Major General Yahya Rahim Safavi said the downing of the Russian Sukhoi Su-24M bomber in November was a coordinated move by Ankara and Washington.

"Undoubtedly, what is happening in the region is a war with the geopolitical and geostrategic goals and Turkey is paving a wrong path of strategy in this war," Safavi said, addressing a forum in Tehran on Saturday.

He stressed that Turkey has made strategic mistakes by occupying Northern Iraq, supporting the ISIL in Syria and targeting the Russian fighter jet.

Safavi referred to the collaboration between Ankara and Washington to support the terrorists in the region, and said, "No doubt, the Turkish government couldn’t target Russia's Sukhoi-24 bomber without the Americans' permission and they had done prior coordination."

http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13940928001108

Not everyone approves. Turkey and Russia seem to be on opposite sides in the Armenia-Azerbaijan dispute over Nagorno-Karabach.

(God willing, I spelled that right.)

Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec. 19

By Rufiz Hafizoglu – Trend:

By using abusive words against Turkey, Russian President Vladimir Putin behaves like a child, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said Dec. 19, the Turkish newspaper Hurriyet reported.

Davutoglu said that Putin's remarks on Turkey do not mean anything.

Earlier, President Putin said that the actions of the Turkish authorities in relation to the plane which they shot down, is a hostile, rather than an unfriendly act.

“Someone from the Turkish government decided to lick the Americans in a certain place,” President Putin said.

http://en.trend.az/world/turkey/2471612.html

Check out the guy sitting on the hood.

Commenting on Saudi Arabia's announcement that it had created a 34-member 'Islamic coalition against terrorism', Turkish journalists and analysts suggest that a country which is responsible for creating Islamist terrorism as we know cannot be relied upon to fight it.

With Iran, Syria and Iraq conspicuously missing from the new coalition, despite the fact that the war against Daesh (ISIL) and other jihadist terrorists is taking place primarily on Syrian and Iraqi territory, commentators from around the world, Turkey included, have suggested that the new alliance may have ulterior motives.

"Against what background has this new alliance been created?" Can Ugur, a journalist for Turkish daily newspaper BirGun, asks. "If we take a look at developments in the region, it becomes clear that countries such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey do not have any problems with jihadism. The very name of the coalition 'the Islamic anti-terrorist coalition', reveals its true nature."

http://sputniknews.com/politics/20151219/1032022109/turks-critical-saudi-coalition.html

Politicians who have to sell themselves to their electorates see peace talks as an inherently good thing. Since most people prefer peace to war, national leaders will promote anything which makes it look as if they are doing their bit.

Those on the ground may beg to differ. Since the latest round of talks to end the war in Syria began in Vienna on October 30, there has been a marked increase in its murderous participants’ activities.

Hundreds of civilians have been killed by Russian air strikes, 35 on a single day last week. Dozens of schools and hospitals have been hit.

A Syrian doctor told The Telegraph last week how his clinic was now forced to operate entirely underground. He said, without a trace of irony, that this was not just because there was more bombing, though there was, but because Russian missiles appeared to be more accurate than regime ones, and so hit medical facilities more regularly.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/syria/12059577/In-Syria-peace-talks-lead-to-only-one-thing-more-war.html

----

Tatar troubles

Putin's ire at Ankara's 'backstabbing' also had repercussions for Russian regions. Yelena Kolebakina of Tatarstan's Business Online asked what was expected of the predominantly Turkic and Muslim region on the Volga given Russia's recent rift with Turkey. She then noted that Turkish firms amount for one quarter of all FDI in the region, which formed extensive cultural and economic ties with Turkey after 1991. Yelena Teslova of the Anadolu News Agency repeated Putin's own words that the people and the political elite should not be conflated—but that the Kremlin's policy appeared to be rather different.

Turkish firms in Russia are now under threat after a wave of strict sanctions. From new year onwards, only those Russian businesses on an approved list will be able to employ Turkish citizens. The Duma also considered further bans against Turkish citizens—including real estate and construction, a key area for Turkish investment in Russia. Cultural institutions are also under threat: the Turkish studies centre of Kazan State University was closed on 4 December, and culture minister Vladimir Medinsky has 'recommended' that all contacts with TURKSOY—the international organisation for Turkic culture—be broken.

https://www.opendemocracy.net/od-russia/maxim-edwards/four-points-from-putins-press-conference