diff --git a/python-requests.changes b/python-requests.changes
index f2ec58a..5418d93 100644
--- a/python-requests.changes
+++ b/python-requests.changes
@@ -1,3 +1,8 @@
+-------------------------------------------------------------------
+Mon Dec 10 10:36:31 UTC 2018 - Dirk Mueller <dmueller@suse.com>
+
+- avoid using recommends on older distributions
+
 -------------------------------------------------------------------
 Fri Nov 23 21:34:10 UTC 2018 - Arun Persaud <arun@gmx.de>
 
diff --git a/python-requests.spec b/python-requests.spec
index 9e2a845..9a1f8fc 100644
--- a/python-requests.spec
+++ b/python-requests.spec
@@ -45,10 +45,12 @@ Requires:       python-idna < 2.8
 Requires:       python-idna >= 2.5
 Requires:       python-py
 Requires:       python-urllib3 >= 1.21.1
+%if 0%{?suse_version} >= 1000 || 0%{?fedora_version} >= 24
 Recommends:     ca-certificates-mozilla
 Recommends:     python-PySocks >= 1.5.6
 Recommends:     python-cryptography >= 1.3.4
 Recommends:     python-pyOpenSSL >= 0.14
+%endif
 BuildArch:      noarch
 %if %{test}
 Name:           python-requests-%{flavor}