(Bloomberg) -- Russia's ambassador to Ankara said Turkey is free to turn on or mothball the advanced Russian S-400 missiles it received last year after delaying a plan to activate the weapons in April.
“We've sold the system that Turkey wanted to buy,” CNN-Turk television cited the envoy, Aleksei Erkhov, as saying during an interview in Ankara. “The owner of the system is Turkey. It is purely the country's decision” whether to activate the missiles or not, he said in translated comments on Wednesday.
The U.S. has threatened Turkey with sanctions if it deployed the S-400 missile batteries, which it says can be used to collect intelligence on the stealth capabilities of the American F-35 fighter jet. The latest remarks by the Russian ambassador could give more leeway to NATO member Turkey to look for a possible solution and avoid a crisis with Washington.
Erkhov likened Russia's position to that of a car distributor whose business is only to sell and hand over a vehicle.
“We sold the car, I took the money and delivered the car -- it is your car, you can go to the beach, you can carry potatoes, you can mount a machine gun and go to war,” Erkhov told CNN-Turk. “It is your most natural right to keep it in the garage” as well.
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