Tsipras trip to Moscow could help Putin crack wall of EU resistance

By Andrea Fais Source:Global Times Published: 2015-4-27 20:53:01

Illustration: Liu Rui/GT



Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras had a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow recently. Some European observers have underlined that this meeting did not produce concrete results and in truth nothing was decided and no agreements were signed by the two sides. Nevertheless, any leader never makes a visit abroad entirely in vain and the talks between Tsipras and Putin have touched three very important points that could bring the whole European policy into question.

Tsipras criticized the sanctions regime applied by the EU against Russia over the Ukrainian crisis. And Putin has started to incline Greece toward a new pipeline project that the Russian government is seriously thinking about after the failure of the earlier South Stream project.

Although Greece is at the moment involved in the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) project, according to Konstantinos Filis, a professor in international relations in Athens, "involvement in the TAP project by no means excludes participation in a different project too."

Tsipras has newly distanced himself from the legitimacy of the Ukrainian government, remarking in a more diplomatic way on the failings of what he had already denounced as a fascist and xenophobic leadership around a year ago, and confirmed his presence at the Victory Day celebration in Moscow on May 9.

This last decision doesn't just have a symbolic meaning, but also represents an open rebellion against the US, Germany and other European countries which have declined Putin's invitation to the traditional Russian military parade celebrating the Red Army's victory over Nazi Germany in 1945.

The EU-Greece negotiations over Greek economic plan seem to have entered a stagnation stage, in which Brussels has lost an important part of its diplomatic force, especially if compared with the relationships when the conservative Antonis Samaras led the executive. Meanwhile the Greek government has increased its influence looking for more respect of its national sovereignty and more extended margins of practicability to determine its social and labor policy.

The Eurogroup is pressing on Greece, but the Minister of Finance Yanis Varoufakis recently restated his anti-austerity stance insomuch as he still considers cancelling small private debts and increasing the minimum wage as the two main priorities.

After the last sudden international fall in oil price, there is no doubt that Russia absolutely needs to find a way to recover a space in European markets, starting from the Balkan traditional partners as well as Greece, Serbia, Cyprus and Bulgaria. But this comes just as the South Stream project has failed. At the moment Greece is a full member of the eurozone, the EU and NATO. Even if this condition appears like an indestructible wall, it could be an advantage indeed for Putin, because the Brussels-Frankfurt "grip" on the country is experienced by many Greeks as economic and social subjugation. They desire a geopolitical turnaround.

The Greek government coalition composed of the leftist Syriza and the right-wing national-conservative party Anel shows a new trend in European politics, according to which the concrete interests of a country and its people cannot be humiliated, least of all in order to participate in the building process of a new risky space that lacks financial stability and has no real political framework, like the present EU.

Moreover Archbishop of Athens Ieronimos announced that the national Orthodox Church, a faith shared by Russia, is ready to support and help the government to stabilize the difficult financial situation of the country.

Working on a complicated web of mutual interests and common cultural roots, Putin may see Greece as the pivot of a new Mediterranean policy for Russia.

The author is editor-in-chief of the Italian geopolitical and geoeconomic magazine Scenari Internazionali. He is based in Perugia, Italy. opinion@globaltimes.com.cn



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