Russia’s Foreign Ministry has said they were “surprised by anti-Russia reports in the Cyprus media” following settlement talks in Geneva last week, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Thursday, echoing comments from EU ambassador Valdimir Chizhov three days ago.
In a post on Twitter of her statements, Zakharova said: “The settlement will last if it reflects the will of Greek and Turkish Cypriots and is accepted by the Cypriot nation.”
“Anti-Russia insinuations are a smokescreen for the real problems that need to be tackled as part of the Cypriot settlement.”
She added that Russia has been successfully developing relation with Cyprus and believes that Moscow will continue strengthen relation if the island reunites.
A report in Politico magazine, which was translated by Greek Cypriot media and published on January 12, said President Nicos Anastasiades “was aware” of Russian activities to undermine settlement talks.
Citing sources, the magazine reported that the fear of the Greek Cypriot side is that Moscow is using social and mass media as well as ties to fringe nationalist political parties and the Greek Orthodox Church to undermine settlement talks.
Following the magazine’s report, Russia’s EU Ambassador Vladimir Chizhov said the report was both “unfair and misleading”.
“Anti-Russian hysteria is becoming contagious. Overzealous fighters of the (dis)information front are working day and night trying to implicate Russia in all sorts of problems, including those that are the direct result of short-sighted and arrogant policies of others,” Chizhov wrote in a comment on the article.
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