“De-freezing” of Hellenic-Russian relations

Hellenic-Russian relations are gradually “de-freezing”, while the Greek prime minister's trip to Moscow is being planned in the background.

The final outcome will be largely determined by the course of the DEPA and DESFA competitions, in which the Russians have expressed fierce interest. The Greek side says the competition, the outcome of which will be visible at the end of March, will be awarded to any companies or joint ventures that will provide the cheapest deals including the price and the bid price of natural gas in our country, which is now paying quite highly for its supply because of the earlier agreement. Government officials say there is no issue with the objections on the part of the U.S. about not granting these bids to Russian companies.

Within this context and during next month, the two countries will activate their Intergovernmental Cooperation, which has remained idle for more than 2 years, as well as the Hellenic-Russian Business Council to promote economic and trade relations that have been established beyond areas of energy and tourism. The visit of Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to Greece this month will be indicative of how things will progress. The climax will be PM Antonis Samaras' trip to Moscow scheduled for April, as long as the competitions for DEPA and DESFA are well underway.

The Russians' good intentions to rekindle relations became apparent by the welcome reserved for Greek government spokesman Simos Kedikoglou during his recent preparation trip to the Russian capital. Relations between the two countries were at a good level during Karamanlis’ premiership, also the time when the aforementioned energy cooperation was initiated, but froze during Papandreou’s administration, who had a different orientation.