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Russia's disapproval of the Greek Revolution at the Congress
of Laibach is expressed in its agreement with the principle
of legality, which constituted the main diplomatic thrust
of the Great Powers from 1815. According to this principle,
each act that contested the legitimacy of the regimes and/or
the territorial integrity of the subjected states was condemned.
However, the particular interests of Russia in south-eastern
Europe and its aspirations to control Ottoman territories
were favoured by the Greek Revolution. Furthermore, the intervention
of Russia in the internal affairs of the Ottoman Empire had
been established with the Treaty of Kuchuk Kainarji (1774),
when Russia was acknowledged as a protecting power of the
Orthodox Christians who lived on Ottoman territories.
The reason Russia intervened once again was the pillorying
and hanging of Patriarch Gregorios V and the persecutions of the Christians,
especially in Constantinople and in towns of Asia Minor, after the Spring of 1821. The particularly strict note to the Sublime Porte in the beginning of July
of the same year and the interruption of Russian-Ottoman diplomatic
relations provoked tension and military preparation in both countries.
In this way, Russia managed to maintain the Greek cause despite the fact that the condemnation of the Greek Revolution
was established at the Congress of Verona, in the last months of 1822.
Despite the resignation of Kapodistrias from the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in August 1822 it appears that the possibility of a change of policy towards the Greek cause similar to that expressed for the Danubian principalities was gaining ground. The so-called three-part plan which
was proposed by the Russians in January 1824 was heading in this direction.
It was the first proposition for the creation of an autonomous Greek state, that would pay tribute to the Ottoman Empire.
These states would provide the outlet to the Mediterranean Russia had sought since the previous
century.
The incapacity of the Ottoman Empire to quell the Greek Revolution
and the fear that the creation of a Greek state would further Russian interests in the eastern Mediterranean
altered Great Britain's attitude towards the Greek cause. Britain's initial negative view, expressed particularly by the English authorities of the Ionian
Republic, was soon changed with the gradual adoption of more favourable views towards the Greeks. The appointment of George Canning to the top echelons of the British Ministry of Foreign Affairs in
August 1822 contributed to this change. The first signs of the new policy
appeared in spring 1823 when Great Britain acknowledged the Greek revolutionaries as a warring nation. Furthermore, it seems that during the
following months financial circles in London were encouraged unofficially
to offer loans to the Greek Revolutionary Administration (1824, 1825).
These loans, for which national land was mortgaged, signified the indirect
acknowledgement of a quasi Greek state, which would pay back the loans
in the future.
To summarize, the promotion of the different and often conflicting
economic and geopolitical interests of the two powerful states,
Great Britain and Russia, eventually resulted in a diplomatic
alliance favourable to the Greeks. Particularly after 1825-1826,
when the Greek Revolution was unsuccessful in the battle fields,
the initiatives of the two Powers, which were followed by
France but not Austria or Prussia, obliged the Ottoman Empire
to accept the creation of an independent Greek state.
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