Apr 22, 2015

Greece interested in Russian S-300 air defense system

by Vaska

You won’t find it so much as mentioned in any of the mainstream press, but only a week after Alexis Tsiparis, the leader of Syriza and Prime Minister of Greece, met with the Russian president in Moscow to sign a new trade agreement between the two countries, Greece sent its Defense Minister to Moscow, too. Only Reuters reported on Panos Kammenos’s meeting with his Russian counterpart, the Western mainstream media preferring to toe the U.S./NATO/Brussels/Berlin line on blocking such news from the eyes of the Western public. The less we know about the real divisions inside the EU and NATO, the better for some, it seems.

Here‘s how FortRus describes the visit, during which Greece expressed interest in obtaining Russian S-300 air defense system:

Turns out it’s not just Iran that’s interested in the S-300 — Greece, a NATO member, is looking into obtaining them too. The subject was on the agenda of Greece’s Defense Minister Panos Kammenos (who, incidentally, is not a member of the leftist Syriza party but rather of a right euroskeptic Independent Greeks party allied with Syriza) during his visit to Moscow and talks with RF Defense Minister Sergey Shoygu.

Considering that Greece is under EU/ECB/IMF-imposed budgetary austerity, one has to wonder how these rather expensive weapons might be paid for. Other than cash, what might Greece have that Russia might want? During his visit in Moscow Kammenos also levied strong criticism against EU sanctions and went so far as to say that Ukraine is being governed by fascists.