Energy and privatizations on the Samaras-Putin "menu"

Ways to improve Greco-Russian relations, which in recent times have been nothing less than frigid, with renewed emphasis on energy cooperation, were discussed at the meeting between ND President Antonis Samaras and Russian PM Vladimir Putin, which lasted more than an hour.

This unusual move by the Russian PM, who is meeting with heads of government, shows that Mr. Putin is treating Mr. Samaras as a future PM and expects the normalization of relations between the two countries. Of course, in order to break protocol, Mr. Putin met with Mr. Samaras in his capacity as leader of the ruling party “Unified Russia”, a “brother” party with Nea Dimokratia.

After the meeting, Mr. Samaras stated: "My meeting with  Russian PM, Vladimir Putin, took place in a very positive atmosphere and was thorough on all issues. I presented the situation to Mr. Putin, as it is currently in Greece, and all the prospects in existence. He showed particular interest and a willingness to help our country. We even spoke of the problems in Greco-Russian relations and talked about ways of overcoming them. We agreed to keep in touch. Greece has need of all of its friends and Russia can prove a valuable one”.

The current situation was discussed during the meeting, as well as the prospects of developing bilateral Greek-Russian relations, with an emphasis on economic cooperation in the most diverse fields, while the two leaders also “exchanged details and opinions on the crisis in the Eurozone”.

According to information published by the Athens News Agency, there was a discussion on the promotion of energy cooperation between the two countries and the participation of Russian companies in privatization competitions, especially in major infrastructure such as ports, airports and railways.

Mr. Putin mentioned the construction of the southern branch of the South Stream gas pipeline, the construction of which is being accelerated and will begin before the end of 2012 instead of the spring of 2013, which was the primary goal. Mr. Putin underlined that by then, there should be decisions made on key issues by all partner countries of the projects.

During the discussion, the matter of the Burgas-Alexandroupolis pipeline reemerged, which had been blocked due to the negative attitude of Bulgaria but still seems to interest the Russian side.

The Greek side brought up the issue of facilitating the access of Greek agricultural products to the Russian market, where there is an encouraging increase in Greek products, a fact which Mr. Putin was well-informed on, as well as the difficulties in promoting Greek tourism, which are usually associated with the suffering of Russian citizens who are obliged to jump through hoops in order to secure a visa for a holiday.