The media learned about the plans of Greece to change the ambassador in Russia

Greece has decided to change its ambassadors to Russia, Turkey and a number of other countries, the antinews.gr portal writes.

According to the publication, the leadership of the Greek Foreign Ministry decided to replace a number of ambassadors, including in responsible diplomatic missions, and appoint other diplomats in their place. The decision of Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias is interpreted “as a purely electoral move.”

“It is unusual and undeniably ugly to announce changes to the posts of ambassadors just before the elections,” the portal writes, pointing out that any decisions to appoint other diplomats to the vacant positions will be binding on the next government, whichever is formed as a result of the elections. In such cases, it is customary to postpone any changes until after the election.

“Interestingly, after the expulsion of Russian diplomats from Greece and the return expulsion of Greek diplomats from our embassy in Russia, is the leadership of the Greek Foreign Ministry confident that Moscow will agree to replace the ambassador in the Russian capital with another diplomat? With such a negative scenario in Greek-Russian relations, where does the optimism of the Foreign Ministry leadership come from that the new ambassador sent to Russia will be accepted by Moscow?” says antinews.gr.

At the moment, the Ambassador of Greece in Moscow is Catherine Nassica. She has been in this position since 2019.

Earlier in January, it became known that the import of goods by Greece from Russia from January to November last year increased by 2.25 times compared to the same period in 2021.

“For the period from January to November 2022, the value of Greek imports from Russia amounted to 8,465.7 million euros, an increase of 125.3% was recorded compared to the period January-November 2021, when it amounted to 3,757.4 million euros “, the report says.

In turn, the value of Greek exports to Russia for the period January-November 2022 amounted to 148.1 million euros, which means a decrease of 18.8% compared to January-November 2021. For the whole of 2021, the total value of Greek imports from Russia amounted to 4.302 billion euros – about half as much as in 11 months of 2022.