At this crucial moment in Cyprus’ history, perhaps more than in 1974, Russia has arrived as a shield and openly stated that it will throw its political and military clout in favour of the divided island.
On a political level, the President of the Republic Mr Demetris Christofias had a meeting in New York with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Mr Sergey Lavrov. The Minister of Foreign Affairs Dr. Erato Kozakou-Marcoullis, the Government Spokesman Mr Stefanos Stefanou and the Permanent Representative Ambassador Minas Hadjimichael also participated at the meeting.
After their meeting, President Christofias stated the following: “I have the pleasure once again to meet the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Mr. Lavrov. As usually we have very warm exchange of opinions on problems and issues of common interest. We follow the same line towards the implementation of the UN resolutions on Cyprus, a solution which would be agreed between the leaderships of the two communities and that we are in favour for convening a conference, an international conference, which after the agreement on the international aspects of the problem is going to examine exclusively the international aspects of the problem.
Once again I express our gratitude to Russian Federation and to H.E. the Minister for the statement of the Russian Federation regarding the survey of Cyprus for gas and oil. It’s a position of principle based on the Convention of the Law of the Sea of the United Nations and I thank them very much. This is a shield for Cyprus and other countries follow on the same direction. Once again, I am grateful to the Russian Federation, to the government, the leadership of the country and the people of the Russian Federation for the consistent support to Cyprus”.
For his part, Mr Lavrov said: “In my turn I want to add that it’s also a pleasure to meet with President Christofias. We discussed the traditional and friendly relations between the Russian Federation and the Republic of Cyprus. We have quite considerable trade and economic interconnection, we have very good humanitarian relations, we cooperate strongly on international issues here in the United Nations and OSCE and we appreciate the contribution of Cyprus in making to promote the strategic partnership between Russia and the European Union. We discussed the problem of the Cyprus settlement. As in many other cases, Russia is firmly in favour of reaching an agreement on the basis of internationally agreed principles. In this case we speak about Security Council resolutions and that those resolutions outline parameters for finding a settlement which would be subject to the agreement by both communities in Cyprus, would be sustainable and would be subject to strong international support.
In the case of survey for oil and gas, just like in other case again, we base our position on international law and in this particular case, the Law of the Sea Convention of 1982. We strongly hope and we encourage all parties to avoid any steps which could aggravate the situation and we encourage everyone to remain within the legal framework, the framework of the Law of the Sea Convention.
On a military level, a conventional and not nuclear Russian submarine is apparently on its way says defencenet and will make its presence known in the area giving appropriate assurances for security of the region.
The arrival of a Russian nuclear submarine in the region is not actually feasible in the Eastern Mediterranean says a separate report on defence-point.gr because these submarines are not dispensable in the Black Sea but rather are operate in the Pacific Ocean.
Meanwhile a STRATFOR analysis is raising many questions say military defence reports. The US think tank known as “Strategic Forecasting” or (STRATFOR) once warned Ankara that if the road got to the point of hydrocarbons in the Eastern Mediterranean then it would become slippery...
This warning is undoubtedly raising much debate if one takes into consideration that up till now this institution was more pro-Turkey than anyone else. Its founder Dr. George Friedman apparently traveled to Ankara over the last few months, from where he sent reports and assessments of Turkey's ability in becoming the new leader in the area.
The analysis says the US Company involved in the extraction of hydrocarbons, Noble Energy, as well as Cyprus, the United States and much of Europe, could not realize in time that Turkey (not having better choices) "would use the conflict to return to the Eastern Mediterranean."
It also notes that the United States from the beginning of Barack Obama’s term as president made efforts to change the country's image in the Muslim world and particularly in the Middle East.
The analysis which was published on defence-point also speaks about the possibilities of a Greek-Turkish military conflict. If Turkey persisted in provoking the situation in the Eastern Mediterranean, while Greeks were focused on matters of the economy, then it could be used by the government to unite the people. So a conflict with Turkey will not be seen as a bad idea.
If this last point is taken into serious consideration, then maybe things are not quite as they seem in this part of the world, meaning that everyone knows the role such institutions play in the transmission of messages, so a possible alternative interpretation of this last remark could possibly be that the situation serves the interests of the west, adds the article on defence-point. And for the sake of extending the argument even more, it’s an indirect message to Ankara that they are not as "strong" as they believe and/or they know what the operational “capabilities» of the Greeks are...
Editors Note - Vague, but then again so is so much of this information. Nonetheless hellasfrappe will continue to mass information together for its readers. We only ask that you forgive any of our terminology for we have little knowledge of military terms.