This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

A Lokomotiv Moscow footballer has tested already strained relations between Russia and Turkey by removing his shirt at the end of a match in Istanbul to reveal a picture of Vladimir Putin.

Midfielder Dmitri Tarasov’s cut-off T-shirt depicted Putin in a navy cap with the words “most polite president” printed below. Putin power did not work in this case, as Turkish side Fenerbahçe won the match 2-0.

Ties between the two countries deteriorated in November when Turkey downed a Russian jet that it said had violated the country’s airspace after a bombing run in Syria. Russia responded with economic sanctions, and now the countries are locked in a de facto proxy war in Syria as Ankara backs rebels and Moscow supports president Bashar al-Assad’s forces and Syrian Kurds.

The phrase on Tarasov’s T-shirt was an allusion to the unmarked troops who occupied Crimea in March 2014 and were popularly referred to as “polite people” and “little green men”, before Putin admitted that they had been Russian soldiers. Turkey has condemned Russia’s annexation of Crimea and its treatment of Turkic-speaking Crimean Tatars.

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Police detained three people on Tuesday after bottles and stones were thrown at a bus carrying Lokomotiv fans to the match, which was the highest-profile sporting event between the two countries since the downing of the jet. Several Turkish news outlets decried Tarasov’s shirt as a “provocation”.

“I didn’t want any provocations, I’m just a patriot of my country, and Putin is the president of our country,” Tarasov later told LifeNews, adding that he might wear a Putin shirt “with a different caption” at his next match.

But European football’s governing body, Uefa, which forbids political statements during matches, is expected to take disciplinary action against Lokomotiv. Tarasov could be disqualified for a minimum of 10 matches, R-Sport news agency quoted a Uefa source as saying.

The match was in the Europa League’s round of 32. Fenerbahçe will play Lokomotiv again in Moscow on 25 February.