Russia calls claims it has killed 200 civilians in air strikes a 'provocation'

Amnesty has accused Moscow of covering up the 'indiscriminate' nature of its bombing raids

Vladimir Putin, pictured here during his annual Q and A conference, has previously described similar reports as 'information warfare' (EPA)

Russia has responded to an Amnesty International report claiming its air strikes killed at least 200 civilians in Syria, describing it as a "provocation".

The chair of Russia's Defence and Security Committee, Viktor Ozerov, denied any civilian deaths and said Moscow had nothing to hide from the international community regarding its role in Syria.

Speaking to RIA Novosti, he suggested it was easy for other countries to monitor Russian bombing and that if civilians were targeted, they would have already complained through the UN not "in a report".

"This is yet another provocation from someone who does not like the way we counter terrorism in Syria," Mr Ozerov said.

Amnesty's 28-page report includes analyses of 25 suspected Russian air strikes in Syria since 30 September, and includes a range of interviews with people who witnessed the attacks.

It concluded that Russia has killed 16 civilians in Syria for every fighter successfully targeted, and said elements of Russia's campaign could amount to war crimes.

Speakinng to the Independent upon the release of its report, Amnesty said it had repeatedly put its evidence to Moscow officials beforehand but received no "substantive" response.

And citing a number of incidents in which there was evidence Russia had given misleading statements in the aftermath of attacks, the organisation accused the Kremlin of "sleight of hand" when it came to collateral damage.

Kristyan Benedict, Amnesty International UK's Syria campaign manager, said: "It increasingly looks as if Russia is trying to obscure the deadly truth over its Syrian bombing campaign.

"The Russian authorities need to stop pretending their attacks aren’t killing Syrian civilians and investigate the cases we’ve highlighted.”

"It’s not even that Russian bombing is targeting so called 'moderate’ opposition forces rather than Islamic State fighters; they’re bringing death from the air for Syria’s beleaguered civilian population as well," he said.