“Cool” relations between Athens and Moscow will apparently not be warmed by an upcoming visit to Greece by Russian President Vladimir Putin, with a Kremlin spokesman on Friday saying the Russian strongman won’t be able to attend the annual Greek War of Independence military parade on March 25.
The significance of this year’s military parade relates to the bicentennial of the beginning of the war of independence from dour Ottoman rule in 1821.
Greece’s defense minister, Nikos Panagiotopoulos, had earlier announced that Putin, along with French President Emmanuel Macron and Charles, the Prince of Wales, have officially been invited to attend the parade in central Athens as the representatives of the three nations who greatly contributed to the liberation of Greece.
A combined English, French and Russian fleet sank the better part of an Ottoman-Egyptian armada in Navarino Bay in October 1827, sealing the fate of the nearly decade-long struggle.
