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Russia will provide Syria with a more modern S-300 missile defense system in the coming weeks, Moscow said Monday.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said that President Vladimir Putin had ordered the upgrade after an S-200 of the Syrian era on Tuesday shot down a Russian plane, killing 15 people on board. Russia accused Israel, whose army was conducting air strikes on Syria at the time, of the incident.
"[Russia will] transfer the modern S-300 air defense system to the Syrian armed forces within two weeks. "
Russia said the S-200 system was not advanced enough for the Syrian army to distinguish Russian planes as friendly planes.
Shoigu said on Monday that "this prompted us to adopt adequate response measures to strengthen the security of Russian troops" in Syria.
US National Security Adviser John Bolton advised Russia to reconsider the decision, saying the new missile system would be a "significant escalation" to already high tensions in the region.
Last week, the spokesman of the Russian army, General Igor Konashenkov, said that Israeli forces were conducting an attack in the Syrian province of Latakia when they hid behind the plane Russian to protect against Syrian missiles.
Putin has since said that a "string of tragic circumstances" had resulted in the destruction of the plane.
Israel said it had warned Russia of the air strike in advance, and that its planes were already in Israeli airspace when Syria fired its missile.
The Russian Defense Ministry said Israel's warning came less than a minute before the airstrike. He accused the Israelis of using the Russian plane as a cover to avoid Syrian air defense systems.
While Putin did not seem to blame Israel totally for causing the destruction of the Russian aircraft, the Kremlin said that he had told Netanyahu that Israel had violated Syrian sovereignty and the Had urged "not to let such situations recur".
