'Sometimes NATO Ally' Turkey didn't try to get in touch with Moscow for hours after downing plane.

'Sometimes NATO Ally' Turkey didn't try to get in touch with Moscow for hours after downing plane. (RBTH).

Ankara made first attempts to get in touch with Moscow only seven or eight hours after the Turkish Air Force shot down a Russian bomber in Syria, which seemed "an eternity" to Russia, Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov said.

"A very long time there were no attempts to explain what happened, express regret, say about some misunderstanding, try to cite some problem in the command system, or something else - it lasted for an eternity," Peskov said in a televised interview shown in a Saturday news program hosted by Sergei Brilyov.

This continued "for about seven or eight hours," which is "truly an eternity in light of what happened," he said.

"At about five or six o'clock in the evening," information came through diplomatic channels that Turkish President Recep Tayyip "Erdogan is requesting a conversation," Peskov said.

"And this was reported to the president. This is all I can say. All I am authorized to say," Peskov said. He confirmed that "there was no conversation."