Greece is one of five latest additions in Russia’s ‘Unfriendly Countries List’, as announced by the Russian government on Friday, along with Denmark, Croatia, Slovakia and Slovenia.
All five countries have expressed support for Ukraine following Russia’s February invasion.
The decree signed by the Prime Minister of the Russian Federation, Mikhail Mishustin, states that the list includes countries that “adopted actions that are unfriendly toward Russia and particularly against Russia’s diplomatic and consular representations abroad”.
The ‘unfriendly’ labelling restricts the number of locally-based staff that a country can employ at their respective embassies and consulates, while Kremlin spokesperson Dmitri Peskov said that the inclusion of a state in the list indicates a reduction in the level of contacts with these states.
The limit for Greece is set to 34 local staff, for Denmark to 20, 16 in the case of Slovakia while Slovenia and Croatia “will not be able to hire employees in their diplomatic missions and consular offices” altogether, the government decree states.
The list of “unfriendly” countries was first established in May 2021 to include the United States and the Czech Republic, restricting their number of local staff that can be hired at their diplomatic missions in Russia.
The addition of the five countries is the first update of the list in over a year.
According to the Athens-Macedonia News Agency. diplomatic sources say that the new measure will not have any additonal impact on the existing operation of Greek Embassy and Consulates in Russia.