Russian Embassy says US meddling in Greece’s affairs
The Russian Embassy in Athens suggested Thursday that Washington was meddling in Greece’s domestic affairs, pointing to the recent visit by US Senator Robert Menendez, who referred to Greek-Turkish relations and slammed Ankara’s intention to purchase the Russian S-400 weapon system.
“American senators are once again lecturing others about morality, this time on the theme of ‘which countries to be friends with and which ones you shouldn’t be.’ Isn’t this precisely interference in Greece’s domestic affairs?” the embassy said in a series of tweets in Greek. Interestingly, the Greek Foreign Ministry, the Greek Embassy in Moscow, the Russian Embassy in Cyprus, as well as Greek journalists and analysts were tagged in the tweets.
The embassy said the “real aim” of the US is not to prevent Turkey from buying modern air defense systems, but to convince Ankara to acquire them (such as the F-35 fighter jets and Patriot missiles) from American companies. “Everything else is nothing more than sensationalism,” it said.
“Despite the illegal sanctions of the US and the European Union, Russia remains open to expanding military-technical cooperation with Greece,” it said, adding that the sale to Turkey of the S-400 “is not directed against third parties.” Russia, it said, supports international law and is against actions that promote tensions in the region.
“Russia, unlike some other countries, views the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea is of fundamental importance to resolving any kind of dispute,” the embassy said.
Menendez was visiting Athens as part of a regional tour promoting the Eastern Mediterranean Security and Energy Partnership Act of 2019, bipartisan legislation that he and Senator Marco Rubio introduced earlier this month that would boost security cooperation in the region.
