The USSR and the Kingdom of Greece established diplomatic relations on 8 March 1924. Official relations were frosty in the 1930s, especially under the staunchly anti-Communist authoritarian regime of Greek prime minister Ioannis Metaxas. The Percentages agreement struck by Joseph Stalin and Winston Churchill in Moscow in October 1944, which placed Greece firmly in the UK's spheres of influence, led to the Soviet Union's non-interference in support of the communist uprising in Athens in December 1944 that was crushed with the UK's backing as well as to Stalin's reluctance to render tangible assistance to the Greek Communists during the Civil War that they lost in October 1949.