"There are not only militants but terrorist infrastructure in the area where the Su-24 was shot down," says Lavrov.
It is not clear but the Russian Foreign Minister could be referring to the two North Caucasian militant groups in northern Latakia, one of which --Junud al-Sham -- is believed to run a training camp for new miltiants. Russia said yesterday that the Su-24 had been engaged in strikes against North Caucasian militants in the area.
Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov: Russia is seriously rethinking its relations with Turkey. Russia is not planning to fight with Turkey.
Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov says it's "no secret" that terrorists use Turkish territory.
Kommersant has more detailed quotes from Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov's earlier comments during his press conference -- which is still ongoing in Moscow.
"We are not planning to fight with Turkey, relations with the Turkish people have not changed, we have questions about the actions of the current Turkish leadership."
Lavrov said that Russia has "always sought to establish practical, pragmatic relations with our Turkish neighbors, including in the context of the Syrian crisis."
Lavrov said that the recommendation that Russians do not visit Turkey was not "revenge" for the Su-24 incident and "was not made in a hot-headed manner. We evaluated the presence of a terrorist threat in Turkey entirely objectively."
Lavrov said that he had talked this morning on the telephone with Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu. "Of course we waited for some kind of explanation from the Turkish side yesterday and at the highest level. But better late than never."
Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu has said that attacks on Turkomans -- ethnic Turks in Syria -- could not be carried out under the pretext of fighting the IS group, Reuters reports.
A Turkoman rebel group in Latakia province claimed yesterday that it had shot and killed both Russian pilots from the downed Su-24 jet, but Russia announced this morning that one of the men -- the plane's navigator -- had been rescued.
Russian and Turkish ministers have agreed to hold talks on the Su-24 jet downing, the Turkish Foreign Ministry has said, according to AP.
More from our news desk on Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov's comments today on the downing of the Su-24 jet:
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov says the shooting down of a Russian warplane by Turkey along the Turkey-Syrian border was likely "a planned provocation" and said Ankara's NATO allies are trying "to cover up for what the Turkish Air Force did yesterday."
Lavrov made the comments to reporters in Moscow on November 25, one day after a Turkish fighter shot down a Russian warplane that was conducting air strikes in northern Syria. One Russian pilot was killed in the incident.
Lavrov said NATO and the European Union has made "rather strange assessments" of the incident and lamented that they did not express "any regret or condolences."
He said Moscow doubts the incident was unintentional and said Russia has gathered information about the Su-24 downing that it is ready to share with the international community.
He added that Moscow has no plans to send diplomats to Turkey or to receive high-level Turkish guests. However, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said he spoke by phone with Lavrov and the two had agreed to meet in the near future.
Based on reporting by RIA-Novosti and TASS
All Russia's tour operators are cancelling charter flights and tours to Turkey, following recommendations from the Foreign Ministry that Russians should not travel to Turkey in the wake of the downing of a Russian Su-24 jet, the country's Association of Tour Operators (ATOR) has said.
Dmitry Gorin, the Vice President of ATOR said that Russians who had already traveled to Turkey would not be returned home to Russia but would "holiday as planned."
According to ATOR, there are around 10-11,000 tourists from Russia in Turkish resorts.
Some 6,000 Russians will either have to amend or cancel their prebooked vacations in Turkey because of the cancelation of charter flights.
As well as its diplomatic response to the downing of the Su-24 jet, Russia has been responding militarily, launching heavy attacks today against rebel-held areas in Latakia province near where its jet was shot down by Turkey yesterday.
The attacks have targeted Turkoman gunmen as well as militants from Al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate the Al Nusra Front, reports say.
The Britain-based activist group The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that there had been 12 Russian air strikes on the northern Latakia countryside.
The strikes occured as Syrian government forces clashed with Nusra and Turkoman militants in the Jabal Akrad and Jabal Turkman areas, according to Reuters, who are reporting this information from Turkoman fighters:
A Turkmen commander said missiles fired from Russian warships in the Mediterranean were also hitting the area, as well as heavy artillery shelling.
Hassan Haj Ali, the head of Liwa Suqour al-Jabal, a rebel group operating in western Syria, also said there were fierce battles in the area, with Russian aircraft supporting pro-government forces.
The Russian Su-24 jet crashed yesterday in the Jabal Turkman area.
What Now? Experts Weigh In On Implications Of Russian Jet Downing
What are the wider implications after a Russian jet was shot down by Turkey close to the Syrian border?
By Christian Borys
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says his country does not want an escalation in tensions with Russia, after its jets November 24 shot down a Russian SU-24 warplane that Ankara said had strayed into its airspace close to the Syrian border. One of the pilots was killed -- possibly by a Syrian rebel group operating in the area -- a loss Russian President Vladimir Putin called a "stab in the back."
To help understand the significance of the events, and what they mean going forward, we asked some of the world’s leading military experts and analysts to weigh in.