Russian President Vladimir Putin in a major end-of-the-year press conference, addressed his nation's internal concerns and issued on the international agenda, he said: he Russian Aerospace Forces' operation will continue in Syria as long, as Syrian army will need our help.

He also said that Russia's stance on Syria has not changed and “Russia will not let any state impose their will”.

The Russian president stressed that only Syrian people are to decide their own fate.

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President says that the incident with the downing of the Russian bomber is not just an unfriendly act but a hostile act. Moreover, Turkey ran to complain to NATO instead of settling it. Had it been an accident they could have apologized. It is outrageous.

Whether there is a third party involved, I still don't know. If there were any goals on the Turkish side, they were not achieved.

A Turkish Air Force F-16 fighter jet shot down a Russian Sukhoi Su-24M bomber aircraft near the Syria–Turkey border on 24 November 2015.

"It is very difficult, almost impossible to maintain contacts with the current Turkish leadership", he said.

Putin added "I see no prospects to recover relations with the Turkish authorities at the highest level".

The S-400 Triumf (NATO reporting name SA-21 Growler) is Russia's next-generation air defense system, carrying three different types of missiles capable of destroying aerial targets at short-to-extremely long range, Sputnik News reports.

S-400 defense system

In late November, the S-400 systems were deployed at the Hmeimim airbase near the Syrian port city of Latakia to protect anti-terror operations by Russia’s Aerospace Forces. The decision was made one day after Turkey shot down a Russian Su-24 aircraft.