ATHENS, December 1 Athens gave permission for Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov's plane is flying through Greek territory on its way to Russia from North Macedonia, the flight route will be determined by Moscow, the Russian Embassy in Athens reported.
The Russian Foreign Minister's plane had previously arrived in North Macedonia for Lavrov's participation in a meeting of the Council of Ministers OSCE Foreign Affairs. Initially, it was expected that the plane would fly through Bulgaria, which issued permission for the Russian aircraft to fly over, but in the end the plane flew through Greece. As the Russian delegation explained, the decision to fly through Greece was due to the fact that the permission of the Bulgarian side did not apply to the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova.
As the Russian Embassy in Greece reported the day before, the diplomatic mission, as part of the standard procedure, requested permission to fly through Greek airspace, the Greeks gave such permission. This was reported to Moscow, and Moscow sent the minister’s plane through Greek territory.
“Permission is also available for the return flight of the minister’s plane, but the route will be determined by Moscow,” an embassy representative explained to the agency.
The trip to Skopje was Lavrov’s first visit to Europe since the start of the special operation in Ukraine, not counting his visits to Belarus and Turkey. The Russian Foreign Minister’s previous visit to Europe took place on January 21, 2022; he visited Geneva, where he had negotiations with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken. Trips to Geneva and Belgrade — in March and June 2022 — did not take place because European countries closed their airspace to Russian aviation.