I strongly accuse the United States of America of pressuring the Orthodox Churches to recognize the so-called Autocephalous Orthodox Church of Ukraine, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov stated during the 16th annual meeting of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

Alternate Foreign Minister Militiadis Varvitsiotis met with Russian Ambassador Andrey Maslov in Athens on Thursday.

Greek Foreign Minister Giorgos Katrougalos and his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov on Thursday stressed the need to further strengthen the already good Greek-Russian relations, at their meeting in St Petersburg held within the framework of the International Economic Forum.