ANKARA: President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday said Turkey had proof Russia was involved in illegal oil trade with Daesh in Syria, countering “immoral” Russian allegations that his own family was importing oil from the terrorists.

“We have the proof in our hands. We will reveal it to the world,” Erdogan said in a televised address in Ankara.

Russia on Wednesday accused Erdogan and his family of involvement in the illegal oil trade with Daesh after Ankara’s downing of one of Moscow’s warplanes last month which plunged the two countries’ relations into a crisis.

“In recent days a fashion led by Russia has emerged. Actually, Russia does not believe this either,” said Erdogan, referring to the alleged oil trade with Daesh.

“Look, Russia has to prove that the Turkish republic buys oil from Daesh, otherwise this is a slander,” he added.

“The immoral side of this issue is involving my family in the affair,” Erdogan added. “Who is buying oil (from Daesh)? Let me say it. George Haswani, holder of a Russian passport and a Syrian national, is one of the biggest merchants in this business,” Erdogan said.

In November, the US Treasury imposed sanctions on Haswani, who was also placed on an European Union sanctions list, for serving as a middleman for oil purchases by the Syrian regime from the IS group.

Erdogan said Thursday “a famous Russian chess player” was also involved in the oil business with Daesh, without giving a name. “He’s also in this race,” he said.

The new US sanctions also apply to Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, a wealthy Russian businessman and long-standing president of the World Chess Federation (FIDE) who was formerly president of the southern Russian region of Kalmykia.

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu accused Moscow of running a “Soviet propaganda machine” with lies straight out of the Pravda newspaper.

Davutoglu, 56, said that Russia’s comments reminded him of his youth when NATO member Turkey and the Soviet Union were on opposing sides in the Cold War. “There was a Soviet propaganda machine in the Cold War era,” Davutoglu told reporters at an Ankara airport before leaving for Azerbaijan on an official visit.

“They were called Pravda lies,” he said, referring to the daily newspaper that was the mouthpiece of the Communist Party.

“Russia’s Sovietic stance — that we thought it had forgotten — is coming back bit-by-bit,” he said.