Greek university to award honorary doctorate to Putin

Russian President Vladimir Putin is to be awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of the Peloponnese in southern Greece.

The ceremony is due to take place next Thursday, February 22, but Putin will not attend in person.

The Russian ambassador to Greece, Andrei Maslov, will represent Putin at the ceremony and deliver a speech on Greek-Russian ties.

The doctorate is being awarded by the Department of History, Archaeology and Cultural Resources Management, which is located in Kalamata.

A senior university official told Kathimerini that the aim of the gesture is to highlight the historic ties between Greece and Russia.