Chairman of the Greece - Russia Friendship Movement (Pakief), Mr. Yannis Kotsailidis, warned that Europe is doing its own harm by seeking to break off Russian gas and use US fuel as an alternative.
Mr. Kotsailidis said that the European Union (EU)'s priority in using Russian gas is not a "subsidy" but a "cooperation to solve the energy problem on the basis of friendship, not exploitation".
According to him, the decision to abandon cheap and stable Russian energy sources to find more expensive supplies from the US is a "trend". This is completely opposite to the goal of energy autonomy that the EU once declared.
One of the EU countries hardest hit is Greece.
Mr. Kotsailidis commented that the Greek government, lacking strategy and only wanting to show it as "defending the EU's choice", has pushed the country's already difficult economy to the brink of collapse. People have to pay for electricity, gas, and gas at "crazy" prices, while Greece has also lost its friendly and large export market, Russia.
He said that blind focus on EU policies has cost Greece too much, and warned that the situation could be more serious if there was no new approach to Russia.
However, Mr. Kotsailidis admitted that the Pakief movement has not been able to directly impact Greece's foreign policy, but noted that his organization still maintains communication channels with Russia, Crimea and the Greek community here through people-to-people diplomacy.
The longstanding relationship between Russia and Greece has been severely damaged by the unilateral stance of the Kyriakos Mitsotakis government on the issue of Ukraine. But I believe that with another approach, the relationship can be restored. We will do our best to keep the communication channel open with Russia, Kotsailidis affirmed.
