Greek defense minister takes new jab at Russia
Greek Defense Minister Nikos Panagiotopoulos took a fresh jab at Russia on Monday in reaction to comments by Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov expressing Moscow’s frustration with mounting US military activity in northern Greece.
“In all these years, I haven’t seen any fellow feeling from Putin” towards Greece, Panagiotopoulos was reported by Armyvoice.gr as telling journalists when asked to comment on statements made earlier by the spokesman and right-hand man of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Speaking to Russia1 television on Sunday, Peskov spoke of NATO’s “political and military expansion” closer towards Russia’s borders and the “delivery of a huge amount of equipment” being “imported through Greece, to other directions as well.”
Earlier this month, in an interview with Greece’s Antenna TV, meanwhile, Peskov had also said when commenting on ties between Athens and Moscow that “Greece is a member of NATO and Greece is a member of the EU, and we have serious problems right now with both of these structures.”
Panagiotopoulos’ comment on Monday comes after he told the Annual Baltic Conference on Defense in Tallinn on November 10 – just two days after Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ official visit to Moscow – that NATO should use its “resources efficiently to give a credible, well-balanced, proportionate and sustainable response to Russia’s aggression.”
