On Thursday Moscow welcomed Francois Hollande. The French President is trying to draw Russia in an anti-Islamic State (IS) coalition that will be united.

That is difficult since the downing of a SU-24 fighter jet by Turkey on Tuesday. That incident is the most heated between a NATO member state and Russia in five decades. And there is no sign of de-escalation in the Russo-Turkish standoff.

The surviving pilot of the Russian SU-24 jet-fighter shot down over Syria on Tuesday, 24 November...