Greece Disagrees With Anti-Russian Sanctions - Tsipras

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Greece disagrees with the anti-Russian sanctions imposed by the West and considers them a form of economic warfare, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said at a press conference Wednesday.

"The Greek economy was greatly harmed due to the response to the sanctions… We understand very well that the retaliatory measures came as a response to the sanctions, the logic of which we do not agree with. We have repeatedly voiced our disagreement," Tsipras said at a joint press conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

According to Tsipras, Greece has raised the issue of anti-Russian sanctions at various EU summits.

"We don't think that this is a fruitful solution to the economic war. In fact, it will lead to a Cold War relationship between the West and Russia," Tsipras added.

In turn, Putin stressed that despite the fact that the Greek economy was hard-hit by the counter-sanctions imposed by Russia, Moscow would not make an exception for one EU country, as its goal is to build relationships of mutual trust and transparency with the whole of Europe.

Over the past year, the European Union and the United States have introduced several rounds of sanctions against the Russian economy, unjustifiably blaming Moscow for meddling in Ukraine's internal affairs.

In response to Western sanctions, in August 2014 Moscow introduced a ban on the import of a range of food items from the countries that supported the restrictions.

Athens earlier expressed hope that Moscow would lift its embargo on Greek food.