An attempt to reset the energy axis between Russia and Greece

ND president Antonis Samaras is visiting Moscow today, where he will meet with PM Vladimir Putin to revive the economic and geo-strategic relations between our country and Russia.

The meeting is outside the protocol and shows the importance that the Russian leadership is placing on the visit in the prospect of once again warming relations between the two countries. Putin will meet with Samaras as chairman of his United Russia party, which belongs to the same ideological area as ND.

On Wednesday Samaras met with Senate President Valentina Matviyenko and the Head of the Presidential Administration of the Russian Federation, Sergey Ivanov. Following the meetings, Samaras said: "In a moment of great ordeal for the Greek people I am in Moscow, with initiatives for economic cooperation at all levels: energy, tourism, exports, but mainly to attract Russian investments in Greece. Our goal is long- term cooperation between the two countries and not an opportunistic one. We talked about Greece and the wider region. Once again, I saw there is great willingness by everyone to promote fruitful cooperation. I will have the opportunity to meet with President Putin, to place relations between the two countries on solid ground again.

We share a lot with the Russians. If we do the proper work, we can achieve the right results." Greco-Russian relations reached a nadir due to the recent arrest and imprisonment of Abbot Ephraim, who was highly regarded in Russia. Although Samaras says he does not interfere with justice and trusts its decisions, he has officially declared that the Vatopedi case has cost Karamanlis’ government greatly and that the investigating committee in parliament found no evidence that it was a scandal.

It is apparent that Samaras wants to continue Greek-Russian relations from the point where Karamanlis had left them and before they were put on ice by Papandreou. Through cooperation with Russia, Karamanlis had sought to put the country on the energy map, even as a hub, and it brought upon him the hostility of the Americans who had other geo-strategic and economic targets for their own companies. Samaras’ statements to ITAR-TASS are indicative of his intentions: "The Burgas-Alexandroupoli pipeline, which started 19 years ago, has managed to get unblocked for four years and now is back to square one. We all know that these projects today have either been suspended or are mired. We intend to prioritise them along with all forms of major projects that facilitate the transport of energy supplies to Greece and Europe in general and go through Greek territory. We
believe that this helps the development of our country and the secure energy supply to Europe."

Samaras believes that Greece "can become a hub for transporting energy, and that there is scope for wider infrastructure, energy, transport and services that enable Greece to become a hub centre and develop its comparative advantages in a number of different areas, from production and the export of fruit and vegetables to

tourist accommodation and marinas. There is a wide range of foreign investments in general, but also in particular for investments that can attract Russian interests."

Lastly, it is certain that the ND president will attempt to revive Russian interest in the grand plan of the South Stream gas pipeline, since Moscow is now speaking of substantially bypassing Greece - initially at least - and preferably moving the pipeline through Bulgaria and Serbia and then on to Western Europe.