Following the “suggestion” from rhe Germany’s finance minister Wolfgang Schauble who said the Greeks are free to pursue deals with Russia and China as they rush to avoid an impending bankruptcy, the Greek Government is to sign an agreement with the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, after the many deals China closed in logistics and industry so far.
During a visit to Moscow earlier this month, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras expressed interest in participating in a pipeline that would bring Russian gas to Europe via Turkey and Greece, Reuters reported. The Ellenic State would receive advance funds from Russia based on expected future profits linked to a new gas pipeline replacing the South Stream project. The Greek energy minister said last week that Athens would repay Moscow after 2019, when the pipeline is expected to start operating, Spiegel reports.
Such agreement would increase the Russian influence in Greece and tighten the links among the two Countries, and appears well more realistic than the ECB speculations suggesting the introduction of a virtual parallel currency (IOU, as anticipated by ZeroHedge in this article). Beyond the monetary value or the agreement, the move could now “turn the tide” for the debt-stricken country according to a senior Greek official interviewed by The Telegraph.
Putin would achieve two main goals with such deal: “Russia gets the green light to extend the Blue Stream all the way to Austria and preserve its dominance over the European energy market while leaving Ukraine in a completely barganining vacuum (…), as well as Russia will energy as the generous benefactor riding to Greece’s salvation, in turn even further antagonizing the Eurozone and further cementing favorable public opinion”.
Read more about this Mr. Putin’s masterful stroke in the Tyler Durden’s article on ZeroHedge, where it describes the perfect circle: Russia (Gazprom) gives Greece money, which Greece uses to repay the IMF, which uses the Greek money to fund a loan to Kiev, which uses the IMF loan to pay Russia (Gazprom).
