Greek Foreign Ministry changes ambassador to Russia

“Critically important embassies and diplomacy have been brought to the altar of pre-election expediency. Shortly before the elections, the leadership of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs decided to replace a number of ambassadors, including in key diplomatic missions. the appointment of other diplomats to the vacant positions will be binding on the next government, whichever is formed as a result of the elections. In such cases, it is customary to postpone any changes (including in the diplomatic corps) until the end of the elections.”

But the Greek Foreign Minister decided otherwise. Thus, even for those posts that, due to the retirement of a diplomat, will be vacant at the end of the year, a successor is being determined right now, before the elections.

A document has been published with the names of 25 ambassadors in different countries and a permanent representative to UNESCO who will leave their posts. Among them are the Greek Ambassador to Moscow Ekaterina Nasika, as well as ambassadors to Ankara, Brussels, Vienna, Yerevan, Doha, Delhi, Tel Aviv and other countries. The publication points to the deterioration of bilateral relations between Greece and Russia, and asks:“It is interesting, after the expulsion of Russian diplomats from Greece and the return expulsion of Greek diplomats from our embassy in Russia, is the leadership of the Foreign Ministry sure that Moscow will agree to replace the ambassador in its capital with another diplomat? With such a negative scenario in Greek-Russian relations, where does the optimism of the leadership of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that the new ambassador sent to Russia will be received by Moscow?

It should be noted that even the Russian ambassador in Athens, according to available information, although he served his term in the Greek capital, does not leave and is not replaced due to fears caused by the relapse of diplomatic relations between Athens and Moscow. In fact, number 2 of the embassy was sent, which was previously appointed to the post of ambassador.

The publication generally calls the Greek Embassy in Ankara “long-suffering” due to the fact that there “ambassadors change like shirts”:The last three ambassadors in the Turkish capital could not stay even for two years. Unlike the Turkish embassy in Athens, where the last ambassador stayed for four years.

In a published document, the Greek Foreign Ministry invites all interested persons to submit an application “with an expression of interest” by February 10 to hold the positions of ambassadors in these countries.