ALEXANDROUPOLI – After Turkey’s complaints, Russia is now upset too over a tigthening relationship between the United States and Greece that is seeing a larger American military presence at the northern port of Alexandroupoli.

That’s near Turkey’s border and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, at a news conference in Moscow, reached out to Greece in worry about the port being used to take military equipment to Ukraine, which the US said Russia is poised to invade.

He said while he understands that Greece is a member of NATO and the European Union, “at the same time, we see that Greece is unwilling to go down the road of additional sanctions against Russia. Greece is not happy with ongoing developments between the West and the Russian Federation,” reported Kathimerini.

“We trust that our Greek friends, with their wisdom, will make a decision that reflects their convictions,” he added, while referring to the recent telephone conversation he had with his Greek counterpart Nikos Dendias, which he described as “very good.”

Lavrov said he raised the issue of Greece and the US renewed military alliance pact and America wanting more bases and an expanded presence in Alexandroupoli.

That came after Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peshkov said that weapons systems were transferred to Ukraine from the port, without mentioning reports Russia wants to take over that country as it did Crimea.

Lavrov also referred to the historical dimension of Greek-Russian relations and noted the “historical roots with the Greek people, with Greece as a country,” although during Greece’s economic crisis Russia refused to help.

“We remember (Ioannis) Kapodistrias, who became the first governor of modern Greece, after his tenure in Russia, in fact on the front of foreign diplomacy,” Lavrov said, adding that the current bilateral relations “are indeed rich in all directions, including in the field of security.”