The spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wedesday refused to offer theories behind Monday’s assassination of the Russian ambassador to Turkey but indicated that Moscow doesn’t believe the gunman acted on his own.
“We shouldn’t rush with any theories before the investigators establish who were behind the assassination of our ambassador,” said spokesman Dmitry Peskov, though he offered no theories about who those people might be.
The ambassador, Andrei Karlov, was killed on Monday evening in front of stunned onlookers at a photo exhibition in Ankara.
The assassin, Mevlut Mert Altintas of Ankara’s riot police squad, was killed in a police operation.
On Tuesday, Russia flew a team of 18 investigators and foreign ministry officials to Turkey to take part in the probe.
Their plane returned with Karlov’s body and his family home.
Russian officials and Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu who was visiting Moscow met the family at the Vnukovo airport.