"Mr Putin (President Vladimir Putin) and myself are determined on this issue," he told Turkish journalists aboard his presidential jet returning from a trip to Kazakhstan. Moscow also confirmed the accord, with Vladimir Kozhin, Putin's adviser for military and technical cooperation, saying: "The contract has been signed and is being prepared for implementation." The purchase of the missile systems from a non-Nato supplier is raising concerns in the West over their technical compatibility with the alliance's equipment. The Pentagon has already sounded the alarm, saying bluntly that "generally it's a good idea" for Nato allies to buy inter-operable equipment.
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2017