On 24 November 2015 , within weeks of the start of the Russian military intervention in support of Syria ′ s President Bashar al-Assad , Turkish F-16 combat aircraft shot down a Russian Su-24 during an airspace dispute close to the Turkish-Syrian border . Russian President Vladimir Putin described the incident as " a stab in the back by the accomplices of terrorists " and further stated that " today 's tragic events will have significant consequences including for relations between Russia and Turkey " . In response , Russia imposed a number of economic sanctions on Turkey . These included the suspension of visa-free travel to Russia for Turkish citizens , limits on Turkish residents and companies doing business in Russia and restrictions on imports of Turkish products . Russian tour operators were discouraged from selling Turkish package holidays and asked to stop charter flights to Turkey while Russian football clubs were banned from signing Turkish players and discouraged from organizing winter training camps in Turkey . The day after the jet was shot down , a Russian law-maker , Sergei Mironov , introduced a bill to the Russian parliament that would criminalize the denial of the Armenian Genocide , a political move that Turkey has strongly opposed when countries like France and Greece adopted similar laws
Armenian Genocide
Armenian Genocide
Russia–Turkey relations