Cyprus-Forum.com

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from todays Cyprus Mail....
It seems that Although Cyprus brought 100 tanks, they didnt get the full on Russian support .

http://www.cyprus-mail.com/opinions/our-view-/20100626

THE CYPRUS Republic has enjoyed good relations with Moscow ever since its establishment. During the Cold War, President Makarios naively thought he could pursue close ties with the Kremlin to extract advantages from the West but his diplomatic brinkmanship earned him the complete distrust of the US, while securing no tangible benefits for Cyprus.
In fact, the Soviet Union had an interest in keeping the Cyprus problem alive as it caused major tension between two NATO allies - Greece and Turkey. In 1978, a peace plan prepared by NATO members US, Britain and Canada was rejected by the communist party AKEL, which was a government coalition partner, on the instructions of the Kremlin.
After the collapse of the Warsaw Pact and the break-up of the Soviet Union, the Russian Federation continued to offer mild, verbal support to the government’s positions and occasionally helped at the UN Security Council, amending resolutions in a way that suited the Greek Cypriots. What was never acknowledged in Nicosia was that this assistance always stopped short of alienating Turkey. Yet successive Cyprus governments continue to promote the myth about the Russian Federation’s principled positions with regard to Cyprus.
This idealised view continues to this day. Greek Cypriot politicians are in denial about the continuous strengthening of the ties between Turkey and Russia, deluding themselves that they can rely on the support of a country which only last month signed an agreement for the establishment of a High Level Strategic Co-operation Council with Turkey. The annual volume of trade between the two is $40 billion, with Turkey importing 65 per cent of its natural gas and 40 per cent of its oil from Russia. Co-operation on commerce and tourism has now extended to strategic sectors such as energy – deals have been struck for the Samsun-Ceyhan oil pipeline and the Blue Stream 2 natural gas pipeline – and defence.
It is quite astonishing that in spite of this level of co-operation, our politicians and newspapers still come up with platitudes about Russia’s principled stand on Cyprus and other such nonsense. Only a complete fool would believe that that country would jeopardise tens of billions of dollars in contracts for the sake of a principled stand on the Cyprus problem.
Nicosia was still in celebratory mood after Monday’s meeting in Moscow between foreign minister Marcos Kyprianou and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov. They all conveniently ignored Lavrov’s statement which essentially kept an equal distance from both sides, instead focusing on the platitudes against asphyxiating time-frames.
This is not meant as censure of Russia, which has every right to pursue its strategic and economic interests. But the Cyprus political establishment cannot carry on this deception about Moscow’s illusory support. Of course the Christofias government prefers to maintain the myth because without illusory support from Russia, it would have to accept that we have no support at all in the international community, something that is bound to frighten people.