Russia summons US diplomat to protest Brill missile remarks

RUSSIA has made an official protest to the United States over “unfriendly” statements made by American Ambassador Kenneth Brill about the S-300 missiles.

In an official press release, the Russian embassy said that a diplomatic representation had been made in Moscow on Tuesday to John Ordway, the Minister-Counsellor on political affairs of the US embassy in the Russian capital.

The Russians said they had “stressed the inadmissibility of the external interference into the exclusively commercial deal”, adding that the deal was “related to the sphere of the Russian-Cypriot bilateral relations”.

As such, they added, it is “in no way connected to the present deadlock in the Cyprus settlement.”

When asked about the missiles last week, Brill said America “would like them to go anywhere but Cyprus”.

His statements were criticised at the time by Russian Ambassador to Cyprus Georgi Muratov, who said Brill was out of line.

“Neither Cyprus nor Russia are anyone’s colonies, and as far as my colleague Mr Brill’s statement is concerned, it at the very least causes surprise,” Muratov said.

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