US complicit in Turkey’s anti-Russia provocations: Author

Press TV has conducted an interview with Stephen Lendman, author and radio host from Chicago, on Russia’s official response to the detention of Russian journalists in Turkey.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: Give us your thoughts on the recent detention of crew of a Russian television that were detained in Turkey’s southeastern province of Hatay at the beginning of this week!

Lendman: Well, this is very typical of the way the Erdogan government operates. It’s probably the most repressive government in the world against journalists.

And it imprisons its own journalists for reporting truth, his government wants to suppress including a couple of journalists who reported about the illegal oil trade.

But Erdogan should realize that his cat is out of the bag. He’s been caught red-handed, he’s involved and complicit with Washington in stealing Syrian and Iraqi oil for ISIS (Daesh), working with ISIS, transporting the oil cross-border to be refined and sold on the black market.

Yes, in Turkey this guy is a criminal. He’s been caught, he’s flaring around, he’ll accomplish nothing by detaining or prosecuting. Whatever he has in mind for Russian journalists, he’ll do no good at all because the information is out, the more comes out.

Something needs to be done to stop this guy, but the real concern is he’s complicit with Washington, targeting Russia belligerently and the things could really spin out of control.

We could find ourselves in a direct confrontation between Russia and the West mainly America.

Press TV: Ever since Turkey downed a Russian warplane, Moscow-Ankara ties plunged to dangerous lows. How do you these tensions transpiring in the near future?

It is very very scary what’s going on. I’ve said before in Press TV that I’ve never been more scared in my life about things that I see going on.

The people in Washington would be of full responsibility. Turkey would do none of this without an OK from Washington or complicit with Washington.

The same goes for Britain, for France, for Australia, for Israel, all complicit with America’s imperial agenda.

And what is this heading for recklessly is a direct confrontation with Russia. They could literally end up in a war.

And Putin just wants ... He sent a message to Washington. He sent a message earlier by using Cruise missiles fired from the Caspian Sea to show Russia’s strength.

He’s just sent another message firing Cruise missiles from the Mediterranean, from a Russian submarine, both of these occasions hitting ISIS targets with pinpoint accuracy, doing this for one reason to display Russia’s former world power.

And Putin said just in a day or so that these missiles can be armed with conventional and nuclear warheads. He’s warning Washington not to do something it will regret.

Putin doesn’t want war. He wants peace but he would definitely defend Russia if Washington keeps provoking him.

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