Russia does not want to completely break off relations with Greece, hopes for the resumption and normalization of relations

Russia hopes that common sense will prevail among the Greek leadership, and this will allow normalizing the work of the two countries’ foreign missions, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said at a briefing on Wednesday.

“Of course, we will not copy such an unethical manner, but retaliatory measures were indeed taken. Mutual expulsions are not our choice, we did not start them. But such things are not left without a reaction. Over time, I think common sense should all – still prevail and allow normalization of the work of the foreign missions of the two countries,” the representative of the diplomatic department said.

“As for the Russian embassy in Athens and the consulate general in Thessaloniki, after forced unreasonable staff cuts, they, nevertheless, fully carry out their tasks, including consular services, issuing visas and defending the interests of Russia and its citizens, in accordance with their mandate,” Zakharova stressed.

She also recalled that the recent declaration of persona non grata of eight employees of the Embassy and the Consulate General of Greece in Moscow is a forced response due to the unfriendly actions of the Greek side.

“As we understood, the purpose of this action was the desire and intention to simply bleed our Russian foreign institutions, to make it as difficult as possible for their normal functioning. Under a far-fetched pretext, in fact, all Hellenistic diplomats were forced to leave the country. I mean key employees, excellent specialists who “For years they have served the cause of the development of Russian-Greek relations. Moreover, the current leadership of Greece has gone on a big escalation in the media – they launched a noisy campaign, published the personal data of these people,” the representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

On Monday, as follows from the message of the diplomatic department, the Greek Ambassador to Moscow, Ekaterina Nasika, was summoned to the Russian Foreign Ministry, where she was notified of the declaration of persona non grata of eight Greek diplomatic employees in Russia. The expulsion of diplomats, as noted in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, was a response to “the confrontational course of the Greek authorities towards Russia, including the supply of weapons and military equipment to the Kyiv regime and the declaration of a group of Russian diplomats in Greece persona non grata.”

As we reported earlier, on April 6, the Greek Foreign Ministry announced 12 Russian diplomats persona non grata and expelled from the country.