Tassos Symeonides
(RIEAS Academic Advisor)
Copyright: Research Institute for European and American Studies (www.rieas.gr) Publication date: 25 May 2016
President Putin's official visit to Greece, his fourth since 2001, comes part when Russia is again painted in the West as the Big Bear threatening global peace and stability. The lessons of the Cold War forgotten, Western capitals, struggling with their own increasing domestic problems, are sending out clarion calls for "unity" and "preparedness" in the face of a purported neo-Soviet threat. Tension has replaced the tentative cooperative climate that had emerged in recent years. In January 2016, the Russian president stated that NATO is a threat to his country's national security and decried what he termed a US return to "the policy of containment." ..Read more