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Instead of strongly condemning Russian President Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, Russian Patriarch Kirill has given his full-throated support to the Kremlin. This support stems from an ideology supported by both Putin and Kirill known as "Russian World", which links faith with Russia’s nationalist aims. This support has resulted in a splintering within the Orthodox world, and is in clear contrast...

18 λεπτά

Since Putin invaded Ukraine, Greece has taken a firm stance in support of Ukraine - both diplomatically and materially. These steps have not gone unnoticed by Greece’s partners in the West, primarily the US, with the State Department praising Greece’s handling of the Ukraine crisis and its role on the southeastern flank of NATO. At the same time, the war in Ukraine is forcing a rethinking of...

13 λεπτά

Faced with the scenario of a permanently adversarial Russia, a number of countries to Russia’s south - primarily in the Middle East, the Mediterranean, and Africa - will be confronted with difficult choices in a vast array of domains—food security, trade, energy supplies, arms procurement, and military alliances. This could push them to choose between political alignment with Russia, which...

15 λεπτά

Cyprus, an EU member, has backed the bloc’s escalating sanctions against Russia in the wake of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. Europe’s punitive measures have raised questions about how the sanctions will impact Cyprus’s economy. While Cyprus has gone a long way toward untying its bonds to Russia, officials acknowledge that sanctions will hurt parts of the Cypriot economy. Cyprus’s finance...

11 λεπτά

Turkey’s Western allies have often sidelined democratic values when dealing with Turkey’s President Erdogan. As the war rages in Ukraine and Turkey maintains its balancing act between the West and Russia, there are questions that the West is once again sidelining human rights and democratic values as it looks to engage with Turkey on Ukraine. Merve Tahiroglu, the Turkey Program Coordinator at...

14 λεπτά

Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s visit to Turkey – the first such visit by an Israeli leader since 2008 - has put Turkish-Isearli relations in the spotlight. Turkey’s President Erdogan described the visit as a “turning point” in relations between the two countries. Despite Erdogan’s stated optimism, key differences still need to be resolved, and a major sticking point in rebuilding this...

18 λεπτά

The imposition of sanctions on Russia in response to its invasion of Ukraine has put economic ties between the West - primarily the EU - and Russia in the spotlight, as countries look to assess the potential impact these measures will have on their economies. As a member of the EU, Greece has also joined its partners in imposing sanctions on Russia. While Greece has very limited direct exposure...

17 λεπτά

The war in Ukraine has found Turkey stuck in a balancing act between the West, Ukraine, and Russia as it’s entangled geographically, economically, politically, and militarily with the war’s protagonists. Rather than take a clear side, Turkey’s President Erdogan has made it clear that he does not want to turn his back on either Russia or Ukraine, and his solution is to offer himself as a...

14 λεπτά

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has pushed European countries to make historic foreign and defense policy moves, and it appears that the political will for a common European approach on this front, elusive for decades, is forming. For the first time the EU is financing the purchase and delivery of weapons to Ukraine, a country at war, while Germany reversed its historic policy against sending arms...

15 λεπτά

Russia is actively seeking to influence religious and traditional views to further its own agenda, pushing a narrative that Moscow stands for traditional values against a decadent West in an effort to foster division within Western societies. This is a particularly pernicious front of Russia’s malign influence campaigns, and combating it presents a uniquely difficult challenge for the United...

22 λεπτά

Turkey designated the Russian invasion as a “war” over the weekend, giving it the right under the 1936 Montreux Convention to close the Bosporus Strait - a move that’s been seen as supportive of Ukraine. Aside from this move, however, Turkey has been reluctant to join its NATO allies in taking punitive measures against Moscow such as imposing sanctions or shutting its airspace to Russian...

16 λεπτά

Energy has taken on a central role in the crisis unfolding in Europe following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as Europe imports 40 percent of its natural gas from Russia. Despite this reliance on Russia and sky high energy prices, EU leaders have agreed on tough sanctions against Russia, and Germany even canceled the Nord Stream 2 Pipeline that would carry Russian gas to Germany. The war in...

18 λεπτά

Over the weekend Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu announced that Ankara would implement the Montreux Convention, an agreement that allows Turkey to regulate the transit of warships through the Dardanelles and Bosporus straits during times of war. The decision comes after Turkey called Russia's invasion a "war", and means Turkey could block at least some Russian warships from accessing...

11 λεπτά

More than half a million people have fled their homes to escape the war in Ukraine as heavy fighting continues across the country and as major cities remain under attack. On Sunday, EU migration commissioner Ylva Johansson said hundreds of thousands of refugees had already entered the EU, and the bloc needed to prepare for millions. In response, the EU has activated Temporary Protection for the...

14 λεπτά

Russian forces on Friday closed in on Kyiv, and the city was hit by missile strikes. More than 100,000 people are estimated to have fled their homes, with many fleeing for the border. The US, UK and EU have all imposed sanctions on Moscow, but stopped short of removing Russia from the international banking system, Swift. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has urged the West to do more to...

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Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine early on Thursday, sending troops across the border from several directions and bombing targets across the country. President Biden announced new sanctions on Russia's military and economy in response to its invasion, while the EU announced it would introduce the ‘harshest’ sanctions ever. Kathimerini's Vassilis Nedos and Yiannis Palaiologos join...

14 λεπτά

The international community is working to avert an oil spill in the Red Sea that risks becoming the worst natural disaster ever seen in the broader region, threatens global shipping, and could trigger a new wave of migration. An oil tanker off the coast of Yemen, has been deteriorating by the month since it was abandoned in 2017. A spill would be four times bigger than the historic Exxon Valdez...

16 λεπτά

Is it time for the US to start treating the Eastern Mediterranean and Aegean as bigger than a Greco-Turkish dispute? Endy Zemenides, the Executive Director of the Hellenic American Leadership Council, argues in his latest piece for Kathimerini - “Dangerous Double Standards” - that continuing to get this wrong, and continuing to give Turkey a free pass when it comes to invasion, occupation and...

13 λεπτά

High energy prices are driving decades-high inflation numbers across Europe and the world, adding additional financial stress on governments, businesses and households. In Greece, inflation is at a 25-year high and price increases for many basic food items are in double digits. Greece’s government has taken steps to help households deal with rising costs, introducing subsidies, tax cuts and...

18 λεπτά

The US government’s non-paper on the EastMed Gas Pipeline is back in the headlines after Representatives Bilirakis and Malliotakis sent a letter to the State Department in which they pushed back against the Biden administration’s shift in policy on the EastMed Gas Pipeline. The two members of Congress said that in canceling the project the State Department “has unilaterally taken [energy]...

14 λεπτά