Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman decries Greek stance
Maria Zakharova, director of the Information and Press Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, has made a statement on the “anti-Russian information campaign in Greece.”
In the statement, Zakharova reiterates Russia’s arguments for going into war and accuses Greece of disregarding longstanding ties with Russia to align itself with “collective Western plans – to do harm to Russia at all costs.”
The full statement:
We noted the unprecedented campaign launched in Greece to defame Russia’s policy. Senior officials in Athens allow themselves to make crude accusations against our country and its leadership, they are literally competing with like-minded people in it. They hypocritically speak of an “unprovoked attack” against Ukraine, for the first time since World War II, a “mass invasion” and so on.
It should be recalled that with the efforts, first of all, of the US and its satellites, wars and conflicts have shaken the world for all the last decades – the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999, the operations in Iraq, Syria, Libya, Afghanistan. No one has taken responsibility for the enormous sacrifices and sufferings of the peoples of these countries.
Today, the crimes of the Kiev regime, which came to power as a result of the bloody coup of 2014, are overshadowed by the new wave of anti-Russian criticism. The fact that Crimea and Sevastopol paid for their free reunification with Russia with total blockade and Western sanctions is silenced. In the besieged Donbass, as a result of the neo-Nazi Ukrainian clearing operations, more than 14,000 civilians have been killed in the past eight years, and it has been suggested to Russians to leave Ukraine. The meaning of the daily shootings can be explained, among others, by the Greek expatriates who live in the territories of the Luhansk People’s Republic and the Donetsk People’s Republic.
The European Union has chosen to silently watch the extermination of the Donbass civilian population, and has been complicit in the long-running genocide of people in southeastern Ukraine. Now Europe, including Greece, is fully integrated into the ranks of the Kiev regime’s advocates, while the Russophobic hysteria cultivated by the authorities has reached a boiling point. On this profoundly wrong basis, criminal decisions are made, including the shipment of weapons to Ukraine. Eventually, weapons will be turned against civilians, including Greeks, who are being used as human shields by Ukrainian nationalist battalions and who have already fallen victim to this inhumane tactic.
In the name of collective Western plans – to do harm to Russia at all costs – common sense has been sacrificed. Bilateral ties are being deliberately damaged, and Russian-Greek relations, unfortunately, are no exception. Athens actively supports the EU sanctions regime. They accuse us of so-called “energy blackmail,” proclaiming the goal of rapid independence from Russian gas, whose uninterrupted supplies have been a stabilizing factor for the national energy sector for decades. Under the collective direction of Brussels, the Greek sky closed for the Russian airlines. The order was given to suspend all cooperation in the field of culture, to terminate the Common Tribute Years. There are calls for a complete cessation of any cooperation. Essentially, for the sake of vague and dubious goals, the Greek leadership is ready to nullify our own common historical heritage, which only yesterday it called its natural advantage in cooperating with Russia.
Time will put everything in its place, it will show who was right and who – at the critical moment – showed a lack of insight, made the wrong choice. We believe that the eternal bonds that unite the peoples of Russia and Greece will withstand these trials as well.
