Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's son Bilal Erdogan has denied Russian allegations that he and his family were involved in an illegal oil trade with Islamic State militants. He said, "IS is an enemy of my country. IS is a disgrace. It puts my religion in a bad light. They don't represent Islam and I do not consider them to be Muslims."

The Russian defence ministry had claimed to have evidence to prove the Erdogan family’s involvement in illegal trade with the militant group. Bilal, who has shipping and maritime assets and controls several oil tankers, clarified that his company had a contract to build "river tankers" for a Russian client, but did not operate the ships itself. He also cleared his brother Burak’s name, assuring that he did not transport oil from IS-held territories.

Last month, relations between Turkey and Russia took a turn for the worse after the Turkish military shot down a Russian warplane, which it said had ventured into its airspace along the Syrian border.