PAOK owner Ivan Savidis reportedly supports Russian separatists in the Donbass region by providing fighters with cars and generators.
Savvidis, who is of Greek-Russian descent, has close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin and was a former member of Putin’s political party. Before taking over PAOK in 2012, the eccentric businessman was the owner of Russian club FC Rostov.
He was already closely watched during this conflict, amid fears that his television station was more sympathetic to Russia than it should have been. Yahoo Sports It stated that “the Russian Embassy frankly encouraged Greeks to watch his station, OpenTV, for an alternative view of what it called ‘misleading propaganda’ about the war in Ukraine.”
Ivan Savvidis is known to have close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin (Photo by Wasilis Asoystopoulosolstein Bild via Getty Images)
Now, however, it appeared that Savvidis, as head of the Confederation of Greek Communities in Russia, was sending aid to the separatists in the Donbass region.
As I mentioned in.grThe Union of Greek Communities in Russia, headed by the famous and prolific investor in Greece, Ivan Savvidis, chose to hand the aid directly to Denis Pushlin, the head of the so-called “Donetsk People’s Republic”, essentially distinguishing between the suffering of civilians on the “right side” of the “The wrong side,” based on the Union leadership’s point of view.
What was delivered?
Aid in the form of generators and cars was delivered to Mariupol, which is currently under Russian occupation. 20 UAZs and 14 generators were sent from Rostov-on-Don, where Savvides owned his football club, to the region.
The head of the Donetsk People’s Republic revealed that they also provided food and water tanks, all of which were “particularly important to the liberated areas.”
Mongolia – 10/03/2015: Russian off-road trucks UAZ-452 4×4 at the grounds of the Golden Eagle Festival near the city of Ulgii (Ölgii) in Bayan-Ulgii Province in western Mongolia. (Photo by Wolfgang Kaehler/LightRocket via Getty Images)
It has left the Greek authorities in trouble at a time when Russian sympathizers and their supporters are being punished across Europe. It is still not clear what will happen to Savvidis,
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