Russian Fighter Jet Shot Down By Turkey

Now seeing an article saying that not Turkish, but Syrian rebels -- aka: those armed by the U.S. -- fired at the Russian helicopter and forced it down into Syrian-government controlled territory, but didn't actually fire it down out of the sky.

Another case of Russia's aggressive tactics biting them in the ***... Putin's already releasing statements on Russian media saying that the incidents are promoting terrorism.

It should come as no surprise that a man who spent the Cold War gathering intelligence as a spy wrangler is able to spin everything to his own purposes and devices.

He should have been an American politician.

It's not just Putin, every government has armies of PR people who specialize in turning embarrassment into nationalism/patriotism. Russia is rather good at it, too.

Yes, I know, but the man himself is particular skilled at the art.

If he wasn't always being a douche it'd almost be admirable, but his obsession with himself is offputting.

It should come as no surprise that political analysts and social scientists all over the world have hypothesized that Putin is autistic.

I've read that. But while autism comes in a lot of flavors I feel like that's not entirely accurate. Or, at least, not without comorbidity. Severe narcissistic personality disorder seems more likely to me, but then, I'm also not a forensic psychologist.

There are better words to describe Putin. The most colorful would never make it past the profanity filter though.

A Russian pilot was killed Tuesday while parachuting from his downed plane and so was a Marine dispatched to save him.

The doomed pilot was one of two Russians who ejected from their aircraft after it was struck by a Turkish missile, Lt. Gen. Sergei Rudskoy said in a statement.

The Marine, whose name also was not released, was aboard one of two Mi-8 helicopters the Russians dispatched to a contested area along the Turkish/Syrian border to find the downed pilots, Rudskoy said in a statement.

"In the course of the operation, one of helicopters was damaged by small arms fire and performed an emergency landing in the neutral area," his statement read. "One contract serviceman — member of Marine Troops — was killed."

Rudskoy said one of the choppers "was destroyed by mortar fire conducted from the territory controlled by illegal armed groups."

The slain Marine and the rest of his crew were evacuated to the Hmeymim airbase, he said. The missing pilots have not yet been found.

Already furious with the Turks for shooting down their warplane, Rudskoy closed by declaring that "contacts with Turkey will be terminated at the military level."

Russia will also beef-up defenses at their Latakia air base in Syria and deploy the guided missile cruiser Moskva off the Syrian coast, Rudskoy vowed.

"We warn that every target posing a potential threat will be destroyed," Rudskoy said during the briefing.

The Turks claim they shot down the Russian warplane after it violated their airspace, and after they repeatedly warned the pilots.

Rudskoy said the Turkish missile struck their plane "over the territory of Syria."

"The objective monitoring data shows that the Russian aircraft did not cross the Turkish borderline," Rudskoy insisted. "Data received from the Syrian Air Defense Forces confirmed this fact as well."

The Russians are the chief backers of Syrian despot Bashar Assad and have been accused of using their military might to wipe out Assad's opponents instead of ISIS.

the crash doesn't appear to from that map to be very close to Turkey.

I wouldn't laugh at Russia's actions, things are rather serious.
They claimed all hostile actions will be answered with force. If they start taking down turkish planes it's war.