A week after Turkish jets shot down a Russian warplane, tensions between Turkey and Russia show no sign of easing.<\/p>\n
On the contrary, the propaganda war unleashed by one beacon of authoritarianism against another is fast turning into pernicious blackmailing.<\/p>\n
Russia is claiming Turkey is illegally trading oil with ISIS and President Erdogan and his family are profiting from it.<\/p>\n
Dismissing the accusations as slander, Mr Erdogan is claiming to have evidence of Russia\u2019s involvement in the illicit oil trade and threatening to reveal it to the world.<\/p>\n
The Russian Embassy in Ankara announced that their Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov would be presenting their evidence of ISIS oil trading with Turkey to the United Nations.<\/p>\n
So far, Russian claims have not proved anything. \u00a0The US State Department spokesman Mark Toner rejected the accusation and said that they saw no evidence to support it.<\/p>\n
However, it is no secret that ISIS has been selling oil in Iraq, Syria and via various middlemen to Turkey. \u00a0In recent days, both President Obama and other senior US officials called on Turkey to deal with security gaps at its border with Syria. The Turkish side said it was ready to cooperate.<\/p>\n
Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, firmly rejecting Russian claims, accused Moscow of peddling a fabricated narrative.<\/p>\n
\u201cThose who adopt the language of threats and sanctions should know that Turkey cannot be blackmailed,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Yet, this is exactly what is happening.<\/p>\n
Vladimir Putin, himself synonymous with authoritarianism, cronyism and corruption is exploiting his new-found enemy\u2019s weaknesses and inconsistencies.<\/p>\n
Would he be able to do that if Turkey\u2019s own leader had not done everything in his power to establish a Putin-style presidency?<\/p>\n
If he did not silence his opponents, cracked down on the media?<\/p>\n
If he had not undermined the independence of the judiciary and the principle of separation of powers?<\/p>\n