Turkey is looking to return the S-400 air defense systems that it purchased from Russia in 2017, hoping that doing so will clear the way for it to purchase F-35 fighter jets from the United States, Bloomberg News reported Wednesday, citing Turkish and Russian officials familiar with the matter.

According to the report, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan raised the issue with his Russian counterpart, President Vladimir Putin, when the pair met on the sidelines of a summit in Turkmenistan last week.

Ankara is also hoping to receive a refund if it returns the S-400 systems, Bloomberg reported, which could be granted in the form of discounted oil and natural gas imports from Russia.

The Kremlin denied the contents of the report on Thursday, saying that the matter of returning the S-400 systems “was not on the agenda” when the two leaders met. Turkey declined to comment on the report.

Turkey has expressed interest in buying a number of F-35 jets from the US, but it is currently barred from doing so due to its 2017 purchase of Russian-made S-400 air defense........

© The Times of Israel