Lavrov: Athens says won't transfer S-300s to Kiev, Moscow monitoring
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Russia's top diplomat says that European countries have been breaking arms transfer commitments often.
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S-300PMU1 air defense system on the KrAZ-260 chassis of the Greek military (Ministry of Defense of Greece)
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stated on Wednesday that Athens assured Moscow that it is aware of its commitment not to transfer the Russian-made S-300 anti-aircraft systems to other countries.
Lavrov said that current media reports have been suggesting that Greece was preparing to send its S-300 systems to Kiev, noting that Russia is closely monitoring Greece to make sure it remains within its contractual obligations.
Following the media reports, Russia's ambassador made contact with relevant Greek authorities to remind them of their contract clause, to which "they said they were mindful of that," Lavrov said to Russian news outlet Channel One.
Read more: Lavrov: Anonymous US officials threatened Putin with assassination
"There was a story when they [S-300s] were to be delivered to Cyprus, but then the West started doing everything possible to prevent this. Given the island position of Cyprus and the fact that it was not a NATO member, a compromise was eventually reached that suited everyone — Greece bought the systems. But according to the contract that sealed this deal," he said, stressing that, "Greece has no right to transfer them [S-300s] to anyone without our consent."
Read more: Providing Moldova with NATO arms could turn out 'disastrous': Russia
EU member states, under the pretext of supporting Ukraine, have been breaking commitments on arms transfer, Lavrov added.
"The same problem [exists] regarding provisions prohibiting the transfer of our weapons to anyone, which apply to most of the armaments that were in Eastern Europe, as they were produced under licenses in former Warsaw Pact countries."
Read more: Europe still rushing arms to Ukraine, albeit running out of ammo: WSJ
