Greek Cyprus and Russia have signed a military cooperation deal allowing the Russian military to use air and sea ports in the south of the divided eastern Mediterranean island, a move that has upset the EU, which imposed numerous sanctions on Russia for its involvement in the Ukranian conflict.The agreement came after the president of Greek Cyprus, Nicos Anastasiades, arrived in Moscow for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday.While it continues to search for energy resources off the disputed island, Greek Cyprus has already received harsh criticism from Turkey after ignoring the rights of Cypriot Turks. Reunification talks were suspended when Turkey sent its Barbaros Hayreddin Pasa research vessel to the island as a respond to protect Turkish Cypriots' right to natural gas until a fair distribution of resources agreement is agreed upon.Russia has sought to forge stronger ties with individual members of the EU, including Cyprus, Hungary and Greece, after the 28-nation bloc along with the U.S. imposed cumulative sanctions on Moscow for its role in the war in Ukraine.Officials in Brussels fear this policy is aimed at weakening EU resolve and preventing a further tightening of sanctions. Russian state-run news agency TASS cited Putin as saying Russian vessels taking part in the "fight against terrorism" and piracy would be allowed to use Greek Cypriot ports. Putin said: "Our friendly ties are not aimed against anyone. I don't think it should cause worries anywhere."While EU states have appeared in public to be united in terms of levying sanctions on Russia for its role in the crisis in Ukraine, Greek Cyprus's closer relations with Russia has unveiled divisions within the bloc. Anastasiades criticized the EU sanctions on Russia as being responsible, complicating the economies of many European countries and bringing no prospects to the citizens of Ukraine. He told TASS: "We have openly said in the Council of Europe that sanctions will not solve the problem. Sanctions will only create wider problems for the whole European Union. It turns out that these sanctions will be paid for by the people from the smallest of the countries. Our economy and defense are highly dependent on our relations with Russia. Thousands of Russian companies work in on [Greek] Cyprus, we have large investments made by the citizens of Russia."Paul Ivan, a political analyst at the European Policy Center in Brussels, said there were a growing number of voices within the EU calling for a reduction in the sanctions against Russia. He said: "Some are coming from Greece, some from [Greek] Cyprus and some from other countries as well. Obviously there are [EU] countries that are worried or annoyed by these very friendly gestures toward Moscow.""This is being seen as critical by many members, but it will depend on how far [Greek Cyprus] would go on this policy. So far they've played along and I expect them to continue," he added.The talks in Moscow come Greek Cypriot Minister of Foreign Affairs Ioannis Kasoulides denied reports two weeks ago that Russia was seeking to create military bases on Greek Cyprus, which is a member of the EU, but not of NATO. He said on the sidelines of a meeting of the Foreign Affairs Council in Brussels on Feb. 9: "There is no question of Russian air or naval military bases being on the soil of [Greek] Cyprus."Earlier this week Russia restructured a 2.5 billion euro loan to Greek Cyprus that it signed in 2011, cutting the annual interest rate to 2.5 percent from 4.5 percent, and the redemption period to 2018 to 2021. Russia has sought Mediterranean ports for its navy since Moscow lost a military maintenance base on Syria's coast during fighting between anti-government rebels and troops loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad, whom Putin has supported in the nearly four-year conflict.