What is Sergey Lavrov aiming at with his attack on the Greek government, seeing as every sane person knows that Greece (like the rest of the EU and NATO) came to the support of Ukraine and international law when Russia invaded its neighbor? The fact that the Russian foreign minister’s statement was in the context of an appraisal of his country’s diplomatic activity in 2025, and was posted by the Russian Embassy in Athens, suggests that the ideal recipients were the Russian people and the longstanding pro-Russian current in Greece – not those who are not already convinced of Russia’s good intentions. By accusing a traditional friend of “aggressive anti-Russian declarations and baseless Russophobic accusations against us,” Lavrov is trying to persuade his compatriots that they are victims of injustice and betrayal, and the Greeks that their government is harming their country’s interests. “Russia would never allow anything like this against Greece,” he claimed, as he attacked Greece. As the spokesperson of his ministry has been doing repeatedly for the past four years.
The Russian tactic is well-known – they accuse others of doing what they do, what they hide, what they plan. This is familiar to us from Turkey’s tactics. It is not a coincidence that the long statement posted by the Russian embassy avoids mentioning the strong mutual support relationship between Russia and Turkey. Without Ankara’s help, Moscow would not have survived international sanctions; without Vladimir Putin’s open intervention, it is unlikely that Recep Tayyip Erdogan would have been reelected in 2023. The Russian minister can’t brag about excellent Russian-Turkey ties as his Greek fans – all superpatriots – would blow fuses. This cynicism does not apply to Greece alone. Among the many revelations in the “Epstein files” are reminders of the close ties between extreme-right wing American ideologues (friends of Trump) and extreme-right wing European politicians – politicians who just happen to have the support of Moscow in their effort to break up the European Union. And so, Lavrov’s supposed lament on Greece’s stance in the Ukraine war is most likely a crude attempt to strengthen Russia’s friends at the expense of what he calls the “neoliberalism totalitarianism that reigns in the European Union.”