In what is believed to be a signal to Nicosia and its criticism of Russia's war in Ukraine, Moscow has appointed a Muslim as its ambassador to Cyprus.
Media in Greece claims that this is also a sign of Vladimir Putin's goodwill towards his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the leader of the pseudo-state of Turkish-occupied northern Cyprus, Ersin Tatar.
Russia's new ambassador to Nicosia, Murat Zyazikov, is 65-years-old and the second president of the autonomous republic of Ingushetia, which neighbours Chechnya. He was an agent of the Soviet KGB and later of the FSB and a close associate of Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev.
His path has been marked by accusations of corruption, rigging the Ingushetia elections, a bomb attack against him, the kidnapping of his father-in-law and the suspected murders of opponents of the Russian President.
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