Prominent Russian politicians are warning that Monday’s assassination of their ambassador to Turkey was possibly a false flag event carried out by NATO operatives.

Ambassador Andrey Karlov was shot in the back during an event at an art gallery in Ankara, reportedly by a Turkish police officer yelling, “Allahu Akbar! We die in Aleppo, you die here!”

“It was a planned action. Everyone knew that he was going to attend this photo exhibition,” said Frantz Klintsevich, a Kremlin senior senator. “It can be ISIS, or the Kurdish army which tries to hurt Erdogan.”

“But maybe – and it is highly likely – that representatives of foreign NATO secrets services are behind it.”

“What has happened is a true provocation, a challenge. It is a challenge for Russia,” he added.

Vladimir Zhirinovsky, head of the nationalist Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, declared it likely the killing was “a false flag operation by the West.”

Russian MP, Alexey Pushkov, voiced similar sentiments, calling the shooting “a result of political and media hysteria around Aleppo sown by the enemies of Russia.”

The assassination comes at a highly volatile moment in Russian-Western relations, with Russia bearing the brunt of a variety of accusations ranging from responsibility for Hillary Clinton’s loss to Donald Trump, the success of the Brexit movement, and the Syrian government beginning to overcome ISIS in key battle zones.

Russia, Turkey and Iran were scheduled to hold talks tomorrow regarding the on-going conflict in Syria.

Turkey has backed “rebels” attempting to overthrow Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, while Russia and Iran have thrown considerable support behind al-Assad.

Reports that ISIS and their affiliates fighting in Syria have attacked Russian aircraft and tanks with U.S.-made weapons and missiles are well-documented, and whistleblowers have revealed secret mass-scale arms dealing between U.S. and Islamic terrorist groups involved in the NATO-Russian proxy war taking place in Syria.

Facebook: Dan Lyman

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