Paint attack on US Embassy condemned
A paint attack on the American Embassy in Athens by members of the Rouvikonas anti-establishment group was widely condemned Monday.
“Such actions cannot undermine the close and timeless ties of friendship between our peoples and the strategic relationship between Greece and the United States, which is strengthened during an especially crucial period for our country and the region,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
US Ambassador Geoffrey Pyatt described the attack, which involved red paint being splashed onto the embassy’s side entrance, as “silly and senseless vandalism,” on Twitter.
Police have detained 10 suspects and arrested two men, aged 23 and 24, while footage taken from security cameras outside the embassy is being examined.
New Democracy’s shadow minister for public order, Maximos Harakopoulos, described the incident as confirmation “that this government neither can nor wants to restore citizens’ sense of security.”
Echoing similar sentiments, the centrist To Potami party said “tolerance of lawlessness and vandals must, finally, come to an end.”
Former conservative foreign minister Dora Bakoyannis, whose husband was killed in 1989 by the now defunct November 17 , suggested that Rouvikonas is being “guided” by the terrorist group’s jailed hitman, Dimitris Koufodinas.
Koufodinas, who was granted his fifth prison leave over the holidays, was seen strolling in central Athens with a leading member of the anarchist group.
“Koufodinas is walking around in the streets where he killed his victims, ‘protected’ by members of Rouvikonas. Today, with younger members of the group active at the American Embassy, is there anyone who doubts who their guide is?” Bakoyannis said in a Twitter post.
