Vladimir Putin has warned Romania and Poland that they are “in the cross-hairs” because they are hosting parts of a USA missile shield which Moscow considers a threat to national security. “It will be the same case with Poland”, Putin said after meeting with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras.
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Reuters reported that Putin didn’t lay out the actions that Moscow would take, but insisted that it was not making the first move.
“And if yesterday some parts of Romania did not know what it means to be targets, we will now be forced to take certain actions which will guarantee our security”, he said, but did not elaborate.
In his first visit to Athens after a decade which was organized as part of the 2016 cross-cultural Greece-Russia Year, the Russian leader headed a large delegation of ministers and other officials and businessmen including the CEOs of gas and oil giants Gazprom and Rosneft.
Tsipras’ comments come just weeks before the European Union is expected to renew the sanctions, imposed after Russia’s annexation of the Crimea region of Ukraine in 2014.
Outside parliament, a small group of demonstrators from a Greek gay and lesbian rights association gathered in protest against Putin’s visit, chanting “Greece, Russia, Homophobia”.
Putin said the missiles coming out of Europe could easily hit Russian Federation.
Putin also said the explanation that the missile shield was to protect against possible hostile actions by Iran made no sense, given the recent global agreement to roll back Tehran’s nuclear arms program, and said that the missiles could easily reach Russian cities. Greek officials say increased trade with Russian Federation could play a part in recovery efforts.
Tsipras said Greece’s “strategic choice is to strengthen ties with Russia” because “we have opportunities opening up in the future to build up our economic partnership, as well as to improve stability in the world and the region”.
“This will be the first time Putin has visited an EU country in the past six months and Russia-EU relations will be definitely on the agenda”, said Alexander Kokcharov of the USA -based IHS Country Risk group.
“NATO fends us off with vague statements that this is no threat to Russian Federation …”
“Of course it’s a threat to us”.
“Putin is likely to offer investment projects in Greece, most likely in energy and transport sectors”.
The Russian president was accompanied by Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias, who has under his jurisdiction the governor of Athos, representative of the Greek government in this monastic republic.
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During his visit to Mount Athos, where women are not allowed to visit any of the 20 monasteries there, Putin repeatedly praised the spirit of the monastic community. “We also want to resume relations”, he said.
