News Analysis: Turkish downing of Russian jet could affect anti-terror coordination

The Turkish downing of a Russian warplane near the Syria-Turkey borders will have further complications in terms of the coordination in countering terrorism between Ankara and Moscow, analysts say.

Three days have passed since the Turkish air force shot down a Russian warplane on charges of penetrating the Turkish airspace, a claim totally dismissed and rebuffed by Moscow, who turned the accusation finger against Turkey, claiming its jetfighters of infiltrating the Syrian airspace before shooting down the Russian jet.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said the downing of the Russian jet over Syria is a stab in the back by terrorist accomplices, a tough rhetoric that reflected the Russian resentment over the incident.

Both countries assigned blames on one another for the growing danger of terror groups in Syria.

Putin announced that trucks with oil go from Syria to Turkey "day and night," in a clear accusation that Turkey is facilitating the selling of stolen Syrian oil by the Islamic State (IS) through Turkish territories.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan lashed out at Russian claims, calling them slanderous.

Erdogan further accused Russia of backing Syrian President Bashar Assad's "terrorist state" which he says is responsible for the deaths of 380,000 people.

Despite the tit-for-tat accusations, Moscow said the response to Ankara's downing of the Russian jet will not be a military one, meaning that no actual war is going to take place between both powers.

However, coordination between the two countries regarding the airstrikes and the war on terror will be negatively affected after the incident, with mistrust eclipsing the relations between them.

On Thursday, the Russian Defense Ministry announced that all military contacts with Turkey have been cut following the downing of Russia's Su-24 military jet, including the hotline that has been established recently to avoid air incidents over Syria.

"This concerns all ties, not just the so-called hotline that was launched in order to avoid possible air incidents during the destruction of terrorist infrastructure in Syria," the Russian ministry said.

Hussam Shuaib, a Syrian political analyst, told Xinhua that there will be dangerous and grave repercussions on the security and military level between the two countries after the downing of the Russian warplane.

"It will firstly rebound negatively on the relations between both countries, on the military and security levels as well as the coordination in the counter terror efforts," he said, noting that there will also be tension and boycott on the economic level.

In terms of military coordination, "of course there is coordination on the logistic part and I think the tension with Turkey will negatively impact the coordination between Ankara and Moscow in general."

Anas Joudeh, a Syrian opposition figure, told Xinhua that "the downing of the Russian warplane was not expected in the course of actions in northern Syria."

He noted that the tension will have a "limited impact" on the coordination level in terms of fighting terror groups.

"I think that its impact will be limited. I don't think there will be a collapse in the alliances. It will not exceed the level of resentment," he said, noting that "there is a factual situation on ground in Syria on the military level, which pushes all parties to achieve a certain level of coordination, which will not fall apart as a result of this incident."

As a proof of affected coordination on the anti-terror campaign, the Turkish army announced on Friday it had suspended flights over Syria, though it's still part of an ongoing U.S.-led joint military campaign against the IS.

Russia has been striking terror groups in Syria during the past two months, which proved to be effective. The strikes came a year after the U.S.-led anti-terror coalition started its strikes against the IS. Endit