Greece destroyed bilateral relations: Russian envoy

ANKARA

The Russian ambassador to Athens has accused Greece of destroying bilateral relations by following pro-West policies, state media said.

“Our bilateral relations have been destroyed since late February. They don’t exist anymore. There’s no cooperation, no contacts,” Andrey Maslov told Rossiya-24 TV channel on Tuesday, according to the TASS news agency.

"The remarkable achievements of the past decades were reduced to nothing within days," he said, adding that Greece had chosen a pro-Western policy long ago.

“Greece has been a NATO member since 1952 and is a long-term member of the European Union too. So, Greece has always been guided by the Western world,” Maslov said.

The two Orthodox-majority countries have been at odds, especially since the beginning of Russia’s war on Ukraine in February.

On April 6, Greece declared 12 members of Russia's diplomatic and consular missions in the country persona non grata.

In retaliation, Russia expelled eight Greek diplomats over the latter's "confrontational course" towards Moscow in June.