MOSCOW. Feb 9 (Interfax-AVN) - Russian military bases are unlikely to open on Cyprus; NATO and the European Union will not allow that to happen, former chief of the Russian Defense Ministry's main international military cooperation department Col. Gen. Leonid Ivashov said.
"The announcement made by Cypriot President Nikos Anastasiadis does not mean that NATO and the European Union will agree to his intentions to open Russia's air and naval bases on the [Cypriot] territory. Besides, Cyprus is divided and this will take at least the silent consent of Turkey," Ivashov, President of the International Center for Geopolitical Analysis, told Interfax-AVN on Monday.
Anastasiadis said earlier that Cyprus was ready to consider the deployment of Russia's air and naval bases on the island.
From the economic point of view, Cyprus is "a rather weak country and it cannot fulfill such radical plans in the modern military-political setting," the expert said.
"Most probably, this was done for advertisement purposes, for attracting Russian tourists, no more than that," the general said.
The Western media presumed that a formal military cooperation agreement between Russia and Cyprus might be signed on February 25.
The media said the Russian Air Force might use the Andreas Papandreou airbase in addition to the Pathos international airport in the southwest of the island, approximately 50 kilometers from the Akrotiri airbase of the British Royal Air Force. Limassol was named a possible base for Russian Navy ships.