The Russian embassy in Lisbon justified the decision to terminate a military agreement signed between the two countries in 2000 with the support given by Portugal “to the European Union’s hybrid war” against Moscow.
“It was Portugal that began the process of breaking ties, by unconditionally supporting the EU’s hybrid war [União Europeia] against our country”, said the press attaché at the Russian embassy in Portugal, Aleksei Chekmarev, in statements to the Lusa agency.
The representative explained the decision, recently announced by Moscow, to terminate a military cooperation agreement with Portugal, signed in 2000, while also revoking defense agreements with France and Canada.
The decision was formalized through a decree issued by Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin on Friday, cited by the official Russian news agency TASS.
The agreement in question aimed to “promote cooperation between the parties in the military field for the deepening of mutual trust and international security”, namely through the exchange of opinions and information on political-military problems, consultations on legal issues linked to the service and teaching military personnel in establishments in each of the countries.
According to the Russian embassy, there is no bilateral agreement in force at the moment.
“The hostile actions of the Portuguese authorities paralyzed the entire system of our relations and also affected their legal framework”, stressed the Russian official.
“None of the bilateral documents work now. Some were denounced by the Russian side, others by the Portuguese side, such as, for example, the cooperation and friendship protocol between the city of Moscow and the city of Lisbon, which has been in force since 1997”, he indicated.
Aleksei Chekmarev was referring to a protocol whose termination was approved by the Lisbon Municipal Assembly in February last year, to demand the withdrawal of the Russian Federation army from Ukrainian territory.
The decision to terminate the military cooperation agreement “is not of a cyclical nature and was not motivated by recent events”, guaranteed the press attaché, claiming that it was an “‘evolution’” of bilateral relations in recent years”.
Russia “reserves the right to determine the measures to be taken depending on the hostile policy of the Portuguese authorities”, said the diplomat, stressing that “Russian-Portuguese relations are at the lowest level in their contemporary history”.
Portugal this week supported a plan presented by the European Commission to channel revenues from the approximately 235 billion euros of Russian assets frozen in the EU to Kiev.
On Friday, the Russian ambassador to Germany, Serguei Nechayev, warned that the use of Russian sovereign assets frozen in Europe to finance Ukraine would have “considerable consequences” and considered that “any transaction with Russian sovereign assets without the country’s consent is a theft”.
Ukraine has relied on financial and weapons aid from Western allies since Russia invaded the country on February 24, 2022.
Kiev’s allies have also enacted sanctions against key sectors of the Russian economy to try to diminish Moscow’s ability to finance the war effort in Ukraine.
The Russian military offensive on Ukrainian territory has plunged Europe into what is considered the most serious security crisis since World War II.