Russia in a bind as US appears more willing to forgive Turkey-ISIS controversy

Russia's defence ministry has called out the United States for supposedly turning a blind eye on Turkey's involvement with the Islamic State group, especially its oil trade. According to the ministry, Turkey has been involved in trafficking oil with Islamic State terrorists, but Russia claims the West is patronising it, considering their political relations.

Russia is calling it a "theatre of absurd" as the United States appear forgiving on the Turkey-ISIS controversy.

“Finally, our colleagues from the State Department and the Pentagon have confirmed that the photo-proof, which we presented at a briefing [on December 2], of the origin and destination of the stolen oil, coming from the areas controlled by the terrorists, is authentic,” said Defence Ministry spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov said during a media briefing last Saturday, via RT.

“However, the US claim that they ‘don’t see the border crossings with tanker trucks crossing the border,’ raises a smile, if only, because the photos are still images,” he added. Furthermore, Russia said in its defence ministry Facebook page that when US officials say they cannot figure out how terrorist's oil found its way to Turkey then it is ploy to cover up the acts.

The spokesman also told the West to review the views presented by the Russian defence ministry. The video shows “how the tanker trucks not only drive through checkpoints at the Turkish border, but pass through them without even stopping."

Nonetheless, in an interview with RT, Middle East expert from the United States, Paul Heroux, said that it is difficult to claim that the United States is patronising the oil smuggling. Nonetheless, he added that, "Any amount of oil smuggling is concerning because ISIS depends on the revenues of oil to keep its civil society going, so it is troublesome. But the burden of proof is on Moscow to prove that the oil is actually benefitting the Turkish government as has been alleged."

He did say that although it should sound alarms just yet, the matter is a reason for concern especially when Russia raises the issue.

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