Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday imposed a series of economic sanctions against Turkey, which came into effect immediately. Reuters said the sanctions ban charter flights between Russia and Turkey, outlaws Turkish imports in Russia, bans Turkish tour packages from being sold to Russians, and curbs or stops the activities of Turkish nationals working in the country. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has not apologised for the shooting down of a Russian warplane last Tuesday, stating that the jet had entered Turkish airspace and ignored repeated spoken warnings before being shot. Russia in turn, said that its jet was in Syrian airspace when it was taken down, and that Turkey was aware of the plane’s origin, adding that the United States knew of the location of Russian warplanes in the mid-east and likely passed on the information to Turkey.

"The circumstances are unprecedented. The gauntlet thrown down to Russia is unprecedented. So naturally the reaction is in line with this threat," Dmitry Peskov, Putin's spokesman said on Saturday. Russia is Turkey’s second largest trading partner, a BBC report says, and around three million Russian tourists visited Turkey in 2014. There are around 90,000 Turkish nationals working in Russia, in addition to their families, which brings the number to around 2,00,000, said Peskov. Turkey’s Foreign Ministry has warned against travel to Russia “until the situation becomes clear”. Around 20% of Russian vegetable imports come from Turkey, with imports being hit even before the sanctions were announced. Turkish textile and leather exports to Russia last year were valued at around $1.5 billion.