MOSCOW, January 25. /TASS/. The Russian Defense Ministry does not plan to create a new airbase in the area of Al-Qamishli in Syria, contrary to a number of previous Western media allegations, the ministry spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov said on Monday.

"There are no ‘new’ airbases or an additional staging airfield for Russia’s warplanes in the Syrian Arab Republic and there are no plans to create them," the official said.

According to General Konashenkov, "Speculations on this subject published by The Times are either an amateurish farce or a clumsy attempt of informational cover-up of Turkey’s actions to amass troops near the Syrian border in the area of ··Al-Qamishli."

"We have repeatedly stressed that it takes warplanes of the Russian aviation group in the Syrian Arab Republic about half an hour to fly to any target in the most distant area of the country," Konashenkov said. Thus, according to the ministry spokesman, "only absolutely ignorant persons" can "seriously talk" of the deployment of Russian aircraft in the area of Al-Qamishli.