Russian media: Kremlin will punish Greece if Athens provides information about S-300 missile systems to Israel
Athens could suffer if it gives Israel information about S-300 aerial defense systems and lets the Israeli Air Force practice against such systems, writes the Russian site Avia.pro.
“If the key problem of the S-300s is the difficult attacking conditions for Israeli fighters, which are still taking cover behind civilian aircraft, then Iran will certainly be willing to act, attacking any hostile objects without restraint. Obviously, Israel is aware of this, which is why this country’s air force has carried out combat tests of the systems against its own planes,” the site remarks.
The site refers to information published previously by news outlet Tsargrad according to which the Israeli aircraft had practiced bypassing S-300s and attacking during drills over the Mediterranean Sea.
Military analyst Aram Shabanyan said that an Israeli plane had made a night-time training flight over the Mediterranean Sea, and that the distance flown by the plane was identical to “potential military targets in Iran”. Shabanyan believes the crew may have been rehearsing an attack against the heavy water plant in the city of Arak.
Avia.pro does not have information on how successful the Israeli Air Force’s drills against targets in Greece were, but considers it a dangerous thing for Athens to have allowed.
“Russia has enough levers to exert pressure on Greece, whose economy is steadily sinking. Today Greece has a new problem – the Turkish S-400s, which have already been transferred by Russia, but Russia could create far more serious problems for Athens if it starts to act against Moscow,” one of the site’s experts observed.
In October 2018, a little-known media outlet reported that Israel had practiced fighting against S-300s in Ukraine.
In 2007, Greece installed an S-300 system which it received from Cyprus, which had in turn obtained it from Russia in 1999 as protection against Turkey.
As a member of NATO, Greece gave permission for the US, British and Israeli air Forces to practice opposing S-300 systems in its airspace.