Kammenos denies Kotzias claims regarding Soros remarks

Defense Minister Panos Kammenos reiterated on Wednesday his vehement denial of allegations made last month by former Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias, who claimed that Kammenos told a cabinet meeting the government was being financed by US-Hungarian billionaire George Soros.

In response to a question in Parliament by New Democracy MP Yiannis Kefaloyiannis, Kammenos said that the claim by Kotzias on Kriti TV was taken up by the former ruling establishment - linked to ND and PASOK - in order to distract the public's attention from the recent jailing of former socialist minister Yiannos Papantoniou on corruption charges.

"Since these (allegations) have come under the scrutiny of Parliament I want to repeat and stress that I never said the government has received money from George Soros," Kammenos said.

He added that he only referred to the financier in connection with...