Mounting tensions between Athens and Moscow have exacerbated growing friction on NATO’s southeastern flank, with the two traditional allies locked in an increasingly hostile war of words.
As evidence accumulates of the extraordinary lengths the Kremlin is willing to go to thwart NATO’s expansion in the Balkans, Greek Minister for Foreign Affairs Nikos Kotzias used two interviews at the weekend to publicly rebuke Russia.
“Russia must realize that it cannot disrespect the national interests of another state because it feels it is stronger,” Kotzias told the Syntakton newspaper.
Asked whether he was concerned about the abrupt souring in relations between the two nations following Athens’s announcement this month that it would expel two Russian diplomats for attempting to undermine the landmark accord settling the 27-year-old name row between Greece and Macedonia, Kotzias on Sunday said that national interests came first.
“Greece has decided to send a message to the east and the west, towards all its friends and others, that regardless of who is violating the principles of national sovereignty and respect toward us, measures will be taken,” he told the state-run Athens news agency. “The time when turning a blind eye was considered diplomacy has passed.”
The rebuke came 11 days after Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’ leftist-led coalition announced it would expel the Russian envoys — and bar two others from re-entering the country — for activities it said violated Greek law. Athens early last week declared that it considered the matter closed.
Greek fury had focused on Russian efforts to sabotage the historic agreement signed between Athens and Skopje on the banks of Lake Prespa last month.
Within days of the deal being reached, the former Yugoslav republic was invited to join NATO, an offer Macedonian Prime Mnister Zoran Zaev accepted to enhance security and economic growth for the tiny, multiethnic state.
However, Russia, which has long regarded the region as falling into its own orbit of influence, was angered. “Moscow is determined to stop the further expansion of NATO in southeast Europe,” said James Ker-Lindsay, a Balkan specialist and visiting fellow at the London School of Economics. “However, most observers thought it would concentrate its efforts on Macedonia, rather than Greece.”
On both sides of the border, reports have mounted up of the increasingly audacious methods Moscow is prepared to use to prevent Balkan nations being embraced by the West.
Zaev last week accused Greek-Russian businessmen of funding resistance to the accord by whipping up nationalist and anti-NATO fury among hardliners staging violent demonstrations.
He said that Macedonian officials had discovered local pro-Russian businessmen being paid up to 300,000 euros (US$352,000) to foment acts of violence in the runup to a referendum his social democrat government is expected to hold on the name deal in the autumn.
The allegations followed an explosive report by the investigative journalism body the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project that detailed the “strong subversive propaganda and intelligence activity” Macedonia has been subjected to by a Kremlin that also sees the strategic state as crucial to its European gas pipelines.
And in Greece, Russian agents bent on penetrating the nation’s intelligence and armed forces have also been accused of bribery.
In an indication of the escalating tensions, Moscow announced that it would be suspending a planned visit to the Greek capital by Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov in September.
Although Moscow has yet to retaliate, Athens has been warned that countermeasures will be taken, with the Russian foreign ministry accusing Greece of participating in “dirty provocations” orchestrated by third parties.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in