Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin and the will of Allah

I sincerely hope that the war of words and unsubtle under-the-table mutual kicks in the financially sensitive bits between Turkey and Russia will remain on that level and not escalate to a military conflagration. While Turkey and Russia have an old and hallowed tradition of warring, let's not tempt the devil, shall we? Especially since it is practically impossible to choose a... should we say... less disgusting party in this story.

As for the war of words: after the tenth (or twentieth, who could say?) flat refusal of Erdogan to apologize for downing of that wretched Sukhoi-24 (today, radio source), Putin decided to voice a tenth (or twentieth?) threat to Turkey. This time he decided to apply his theological acumen:

Putin: "I Guess Allah Decided To Punish The Ruling Clique In Turkey By Stripping Them Of Their Sanity"

And from stating this theological point, Putin switched to the mundane, I would even say - pedestrian - good ole KGB shtick:

But we will not respond in a nervous and dangerous way, our reaction will not be to achieve short term political goals, no, our actions will be based on responsibility before our people, our country.

We don't want any sabre-rattling, but if somebody thinks they can get away with this with tomatoes and restrictions on construction workers, they are wrong. We will long remember what they did and they will long regret what they did.

I don't know whether Erdogan is a slow or a quick learner, but I am sure that by now he is looking over his shoulder frequently enough.

As he should.