Mikis Filaniotis, Chairman of the Cyprus-Russia Friendship and Cultural Relations Society, told RIA Novosti.

On Tuesday, 18 August, 66 years passed since the establishment of diplomatic relations between Russia and Cyprus.

“Despite the fact that in recent years official relations have clearly deteriorated in many areas such as the economy, tourism and services between our states, entirely on the initiative and instructions of the EU leadership, Cypriots still continue to respect and love Russia,” Filaniotis told the agency.

The chairman of the friendship society noted that the roots of friendly relations between Cyprus and Russia are very deep and strong, and that the majority of Cypriots support the preservation of good relations between the countries.

“We, as people’s diplomats, try to replace at least partially the political diplomacy that has largely atrophied; even elementary polite and hospitable behaviour, which is a trait of our people, has been forgotten,” the public figure said.

Filaniotis expressed confidence that relations between the countries will normalise in the future.

“Everything will return to the good past. This bad period will remain in brackets, and we will soon forget about it. But before forgetting, we need to learn lessons from it so that something like this never happens again,” he said.

@rusembcy