Vladimir Putin
The President of Russia Vladimir Putin during the international Arctic forum in Arkhangelsk, jokingly suggested Iceland to help with the creation of its own army. It is reported RIA Novosti on Thursday, March 30.
“Iceland is a small country on the island, we even his army is not” — said in the dialogue with the Russian leader of his Icelandic counterpart Gudny Johannesson.
“Help?” — asked in response to this remark by Putin.
Reaction Jóhannesson media do not report.
In September 2016 the foreign Ministry of Iceland has condemned the rapprochement of the two Russian bombers with a passenger liner. Local media added, however, that the Icelanders regularly criticize the flights of Russian aircraft in the airspace of the country unmarked. In turn, the representative of the Russian Embassy in Reykjavik Alex Shadskiy said that local authorities are using the incident as grounds to re-open on its territory the American military base at Keflavik.
During the financial crisis of 2008-2009, Iceland on the background of the banking crisis and the depreciation of the national currency asked Russia for a loan. The originally requested amount was four billion Euro, but then it was reduced eight — fold to half a billion dollars. Moscow considered the request for about a year, the Finance Ministry decided not to grant the loan in connection with the budget deficit.