Putin on S-400 Deployment in Syria: Let Turkish Aviation Fly Now

With Russia's deployment of the S-400 anti-aircraft system, Turkey will not be able to violate Syria's airspace with impunity, as they had previously done, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday at his annual press conference.

"They [Turkish authorities] thought that we would turn tail and run! No, Russia is not that country. We have increased our presence in Syria, have increased the number of combat aircraft deployed there. There was no Russian air defense system there –now there's the S-400. If before, Turkey had constantly violated Syrian airspace, let them try it now."

Following the incident involving the Russian Su-24M bomber which was shot down by a Turkish F-16 over Syria on the Turkish border, Russia deployed its latest anti-aircraft missile system – the S-400 to Syria, also deploying the missile cruiser Moskva and the submarine Rostov-on-Don off the shores of Syria in the Mediterranean.

The S-400 Triumf (NATO reporting name SA-21 Growler) is Russia's next-generation air defense system, carrying three different types of missiles capable of destroying aerial targets at short-to-extremely long range.

In late November, the S-400 systems were deployed at the Hmeimim airbase near the Syrian port city of Latakia to protect anti-terror operations by Russia’s Aerospace Forces. The decision was made one day after Turkey shot down a Russian Su-24 aircraft.