Statement by AKEL-Left-New Forces Parliamentary Representative Yiorgos Loucaides – Reply to governing DISY party

AKEL C.C. Press Office, 18 April 2019, Nicosia

The leadership of DISY accuses us of seeing ghosts when we are referring to the Cold War strategy of the US against the Russian Federation in the South Eastern Mediterranean, as this is embodied in the Menendez-Rubio bill. They are probably pinning their hopes that people won’t read the bill, which is precisely why they reply by engaging in empty talk, they themselves creating ghosts and putting forth non-existent dilemmas in an effort to disorientate and fool the people whose intelligence they are constantly underestimating. Nor do they reply about the fact that, for the correct initiative to lift the arms embargo which was unfairly imposed on Cyprus, the reward in return is Cyprus’ transformation into a US colony.

Instead of issuing another reply, we shall cite, inter alia, some of the more than twenty references contained in the bill, which refer to Russia:

– “It is the policy of the US…to support efforts to counter the Russian Federation Government’s interference and influence in the Eastern Mediterranean through increased security cooperation with Greece, Cyprus and Israel, to include intelligence sharing, cyber and maritime domain awareness”

– “To support efforts by countries in the region to demobilise military equipment supplied by the Government of the Russian Federation in favor of equipment provided by NATO and NATO-allied member countries”

– “A listing of Russian national ownership of media outlets in these countries (Cyprus, Greece and Israel), including the name of the media outlet, approximate viewership, and assessment of whether the outlet promotes pro-Kremlin views”

– “An assessment of efforts by the Government of the Russian Federation to intimidate and influence the decision of His All Holiness the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, leader of the 300,000,000 Orthodox Christians worldwide, to grant the autocephaly to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church”