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Gavriil Avramidis , member of the Regional Council of
Central Macedonia, former member of the Greek parliament,
coordinator of Greek-Russian Alliance, a public association
(Greece): "The Greeks Are the Most Pro-Russian of
Europeans" was the headline of articles published in
the Greek press on September 11, 2014.
We believe that closer Greek-Russian relations would
benefit both nations. I personally completely support
my country's geopolitical turnaround toward Russia
in politics, economics, and defense, which may become our strategic task. Close cooperation
with Russia as a strategic partner may become the main objective of the polycentric foreign
policy of Greece.
Greece is a small country that is deep in crisis. This difficult situation is pushing Greece into
subjugation. It is pressing the country to relinquish its sovereign rights, to become a colony under
the oversight of creditors, and to sell off its state enterprises, infrastructures, and rich natural
resources. One effect of this protracted economic decline is increasing unemployment, which is
forcing experienced and competent workers to leave Greece. But that small country imports on
average nearly twice as much oil per capita than other EU countries. Natural gas provided by
Gazprom accounts for 65% of the gas imports of the state company DEPA.
Greece is located geographically between energy producers in the Middle East, North Africa,
and the Caspian, and on key transportation routes in the Aegean Sea and the eastern Mediter-
ranean, which gives it the status of a highly important energy hub. Moreover, in terms of natural
gas reserves, Greece itself is in fourth place in the world after Russia, Iran, and Qatar.
At the end of the day, it is Russian energy interests, vital interests of Russia, that are being at-
tacked. Russian companies can make investments in various sectors in Greece. They can invest
into completing large-scale energy projects, acquire leading energy companies, set up companies
on Greek territory to produce various types of energy, acquire railroad networks in combination
with seaport facilities, set up enterprises in Greece to process oil and gas, and invest in the tourism
sector.
We believe that our proposal for Greece to turn geopolitically to Russia means a new political
path for the Greek people to take, a path that can open new opportunities for Greek-Russian
economic, political, and defense relations. As a member of the Greek parliament, I constantly
spoke in parliament against the anti-Russian sanctions. One of my colleagues and I were the first
EU politicians to pay an official visit to Crimea.
Oleg Tsarev, Speaker of the Parliament of Novorossia:
Ukraine is a painful but unavoidable subject: Every-
thing that is going on there might happen in any other
country.
It has been and remains a divided country with a
Russian and Ukrainian populations. Today, we should
push aside everything that was said about us as one
people to accept the simple fact that we are different.