Greece bears no responsibility for the deterioration of relations with Russia and hopes for a thaw, Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias has told the national ERT broadcaster
ATHENS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 07th February, 2020) Greece bears no responsibility for the deterioration of relations with Russia and hopes for a thaw, Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias has told the national ERT broadcaster.
When asked whether relations would improve under Kyriakos Mitsotakis' government, Dendias expressed hope that it would be the case.
"I think that really great efforts were made during my [November] visit to Moscow and our cordial and long talks with [Foreign Minister] Mr [Sergey] Lavrov, which lasted more than five hours. I believe [Alexander] Vinnik's case has created a problem [in bilateral relations]. This, from Russia's viewpoint, did not have a positive impact on Greek-Russian relations. I think, however, that both the historical depth and the bonds of common faith will lead to Greek-Russian relations improving in the mid-term. And we strive for this," he said.
Speaking of the disagreements between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Constantinople Patriarchate, the diplomat stated that the Greek state had nothing to do with this. Archbishop Ieronymos of Athens and All Greece notably acknowledged the autocephaly of the non-canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church in October.
The minister reiterated the hope that bilateral relations would improve and interpreted Russian President Vladimir Putin's recent address to Greek Ambassador Ekaterini Nassika as a sign of a thaw.
During Wednesday's ceremony for newly-arrived ambassadors to present credentials at the Kremlin, Putin said in an address to Nassika that the development of bilateral cooperation met both nations' interests and corresponded to the centuries-old traditions of friendship and mutual sympathy of the two peoples.
Reacting to the interviewer's suggestion that religious issues and the Vinnik case would remain on the agenda, the minister proposed focusing on the "depth" of relations.
"We are talking about the depth of relations, which, I think, could finally influence and solve problems for which - Russia clearly sees this - the Greek side bears no responsibility," the minister added.
Russian-Greek relations soured in the summer of 2018 after Athens expelled two Russian diplomats and banned two more from entering over alleged illegal actions that threatened the country's national security, particularly, settlement of the dispute with Macedonia. Moscow has refuted the accusations as "absurd."
In December 2019, Greece ruled to extradite Russian national Vinnik to France even though the man is being wanted by Moscow too.
