US expected to enforce sanctions against Turkey due to aircraft purchases from Russia

US Democratic Party Senator Ben Cardin, a member of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, sent a letter to the US administration Thursday, stressing that buying Turkey's S-400 missile systems from Russia requires sanctions against Ankara, “reported. Sputnik International” Transmission Periscope.

In August, Washington pronounced sanctions against Russia, targeting defence and economic sectors and limiting relations with Russian companies.

The law imposes sanctions “on any person who conducted an important transaction with the Russian Federation's defence or intelligence sectors”, Cardin wrote in the letter, as quoted by the magazine “Politco”.

On Tuesday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Ankara had made the first payment for Russia's S-400 systems.

Pentagon declared for “Sputnik” that the US had informed Turkish authorities of its concerns regarding the country's purchase of S-400 air surface missile systems in Russia, citing Ankara's NATO membership as a reason for the state to defend itself via “defence interoperability system”.

Agreement caused concerns within the US Department of Defence, but Secretary General NATO Jens Stoltenberg, as well as France and Germany, said it is Ankara's sovereign election.

In response to Washington's overwhelming “ ” response to the issue, Erdogan stressed that Turkey is “host to its country”.

When asked whether Turkey's NATO membership would be an obstacle to S-400 supplies, the Kremlin's deputy earlier said that “sella side takes over pledges by determining what it has to do with the surrendered weapons and what it cannot do”.

S-400 is Russia's next generation air protection system.

It carries three different kinds of missiles capable of destroying air targets from short distances to too long.

It is designed to track and destroy different kinds of air objects, from the plane of discovery to ballistic missiles./Periscopi/