Dimitri Sotiropoulos
Greece has long-standing ties with Russia, stretching back to the Byzantine period, based on shared religion – Orthodox Christianity and the legacy of the East Roman Empire. Moreover, it is, among other things, Russian support that helped Greeks regain their independence in the 19th century. In the 20th century the Greek communist party’s pro-Soviet attitude was widely supported. However, the tradition of good Greek-Russian relations in present days is severely strained. The full-scale attack on Ukraine made Greece officially turn away from Russia, following the path of NATO and the EU.
Dimitri Sotiropoulos in his policy paper describes the Greek-Russian relations before and after 2022. The comparison highlights profound changes in Greek politics and social attitudes towards Russia. The author underlines that before the outbreak of the full-scale war relations between both countries were developing well, on political and economical level. However, Russia couldn’t be considered Greece’s ally. In the 2010’s, despite official requests, Russia didn’t help soften the consequences of the financial crisis in Greece and in 2018 interfered in the Greek-North Macedonian dispute over the official state name of the latter trying to derail the negotiations concerning this issue. 2022 marks as the year of the total shift in Greek politics, now on strongly supporting Ukrainian fight against Russian aggression, as it awakes the memories of the uprisings of Greeks against Ottoman Empire.
However, the turn from Russia didn’t extend to the whole political scene and sectors of society in Greece. Dimitri Sotiropoulos gives several examples of ambivalent or openly pro-Russian postures that can be spotted on the Greek political scene as well as in some media outlets spreading Kremlin messages. In the paper, the author paints a diverse landscape of the Greek far-right, which hold the strongest pro-Russian attitude. The author points out that certain factions of Orthodox Church in Greece also hold a firm stance in promoting a positive image of Russia among Greeks.
So as the official state’s line is pro-Western, thus pro-Ukrainian, the Greek society is much more lukewarm in its support for Ukraine, and the weakening of that view should not be excluded in the future.
The policy paper was produced as part of the “Protecting European Values” project.
