Vladimir Putin escalated his confrontation with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan over the downing of a Russian bomber, saying relations are beyond repair while declaring Syria a no-fly zone for Turkish military aircraft.

“Turkey used to violate Syrian airspace all the time,” Putin told reporters Thursday. “Let them try and fly there now” that Russia’s most advanced air-defense system is covering the whole country, he said. Russia is taking part in international talks Friday on how to end Syria’s more than four-year civil war.

The Nov. 24 shoot-down, the first by a NATO member of a Russian aircraft in decades, came less than two months after Putin joined the Syrian war on the side of Bashar al-Assad. That has complicated efforts by the U.S. and its allies, which have been bombing jihadist groups for almost two years, to end a conflict that’s killed a quarter million people and sparked Europe’s worst migrant crisis since World War II.

David Fuller's view

Putin has his apologists and even admirers, at home and abroad, but we should be under no illusions concerning what he is – an ex-KGB thug, now under pressure because his kleptocracy is overly dependent on oil and gas exports.

Russia’s economic deterioration over the last eighteen months shocked Putin and has restrained his hand somewhat but that may change.  Putin’s personal security comes from the size of his military, which he uses to intimidate.  Consequently, Putin’s Russia remains a source of potential black sway events, including in the Middle East, which has a few of its own.