Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived at the Eleftherios Venizelos Athens International Airport at 5 pm (local time) — after a one and a half hour delay. Putin is accompanied by ministers and businessmen, including the managing directors of Gazprom and Rosneft. He was welcomed upon arrival by National Defense Minister Panos Kammenos and a welcoming committee with full military honors.
Putin’s plane had an honorary escort of two Hellenic Air Force F-16s after it entered Athens air space.
Sources from onalert news site pointed to six Turkish air jets flying over the islets of Anthropofagos and Agathonisi, in the southeastern Aegean, just hours before Putin’s arrival.
The Turkish jets had the following flight plan:
- Four F-16 jets were detected at 1:45 pm over Anthropofagos at 3,300 feet.
- Two F-16 jets were noted at 1:48 pm over Anthropofagos at 5,200 feet and 1:50 pm over Agathonisi at 8,800 feet.
- Two F-16 fighter jets were noted at 1:54 pm over Agathonisi at 20,000 feet.
Greek air jets responded immediately, taking off from the island of Skyros, southernmost of the Sporades, and intercepted the Turkish jets chasing them from Greek air space.
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