Greece ended up supporting a six month extension of the sanctions against Russia, however created waves when they pubicly spoke out against the sanctions just days before. After the criticism of the European Parliament, Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias made his first statement.

Kotzias claimed that Greece wanted to “prevent a rift” between Russia and the EU, although both sides have been in an acute conflict for the past 10 months over Moscow’s alleged role on the conflict in Ukraine.

“We are not against every sanction. We are in the mainstream, we are not the bad boys."

According to the Foreign Minister of Italy, Kotzias went on to say that he was not a "Russian puppet".