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Kremlin highlights concerns over transportation of NATO’s equipment through Greek port

Dmitry Peskov was confident that Greece would never be hostile to Russia

ATHENS, December 11. /TASS/. Russia is concerned about the transportation of NATO’s military equipment through the Greek port of Alexandroupolis, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in an English-language interview with Greece’s Antenna TV channel.

When commenting on Moscow’s concerns about the renewal of a defense cooperation agreement between Greece and the United States, Peskov said: "The sticky part is very simple. You’ve got more and more NATO soldiers, American soldiers on your territory. You transfer hundreds and thousands of military equipment units through Alexandroupolis and so on and so forth. You’re opening new facilities for NATO." "At the same time, NATO is naming us an enemy and NATO is formulating the main objective of the alliance and the main objective is to deter Russia. So, this makes us nervous, you have to understand us," Peskov added.

In response to the interviewer’s remark that Greece, in turn, is worried about the delivery of Russia’s S-400 missile systems to Turkey, the Kremlin spokesman noted that "the S-400 system is a defensive system and what is being transported through Alexandroupolis is not defensive equipment."

Peskov was confident that Greece would never be hostile to Russia. "But Greece is bound by all the obligations under the auspices of NATO. This is a problem of NATO for us. And NATO is going to be closer to our borders, we all see quite a hostile - in our understanding - expansion of NATO towards our borders, towards Ukraine," he added.

When asked how he would expect Greece to react if the European Union imposed sanctions on Russia over Ukraine, Peskov pointed out that Moscow viewed Greece as a partner and a friendly country and would like to continue to treat Greece as a partner and a friend. In response to the question if he would expect Greece to differentiate from the EU, he noted that Greece was a sovereign country and had the right to take sovereign decisions.

When asked if there was a world where the US and Russia could be partners and not adversaries, Peskov said that "during the current state of affairs in our bilateral relations, one can hardly think about that."

In late November, the Rizospastis newspaper reported that a large-scale campaign to transport US military equipment was taking place in the Greek port of Alexandroupolis. In accordance with the recently updated defense cooperation agreement between Greece and the US, more than 120 warplanes and 1,000 combat vehicles are expected to be transported through the port, which will be deployed to countries on the eastern flank of NATO, including Greece, Bulgaria and Romania.