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Anastasia Balezdrova

"Greece is not a beggar that goes around countries to seek a solution to its financial problem. Moreover, it concerns not only Greece but also Europe and therefore the solution to it should be European," Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said after his meeting with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin in Moscow.

Thus, he denied that he had submitted Athens’ request to Russia for financial assistance. Vladimir Putin confirmed his words, adding, "We talked about joint large projects in the energy sector. We could finance them and part of the profits from their operation could be used for the payment of certain financial obligations."

The Russian President said that if the Greek government decided to carry out privatisations, his country was ready to participate in competitions for the purchase of Greek public companies.

The two leaders announced their joint decision to build a Greek pipeline that would carry natural gas for the needs of Greece from its border with Turkey. The Greek Prime Minister said that his country was ready to accept investors who would participate in this project. According to Alexis Tsipras, that decision of Athens reflected nothing more than "its right to exercise multilateral foreign policy." He pointed out that Athens was implementing its commitments under the agreements it had signed, "utilising all opportunities for the conclusion of mutually beneficial cooperation" at the same time.

In turn, Vladimir Putin said that Russia and Greece would begin cooperation in trade, but did not announce the lifting of the Russian embargo on Greek agricultural products that Athens expected. "We have always had, and have, good relations with Greece. We understand that it was forced to vote for the imposition of economic sanctions against Russia but we cannot make exceptions for only one country," he said.

Alexis Tsipras expressed the negative attitude of his government towards the "logic of imposing economic sanctions against Russia on the part of the European Union". "We do not consider as a perspective an economic war that could lead to relations similar to those during the period of the Cold War," Tsipras said, adding that Athens supports the implementation of the agreement from Minsk on resolving the crisis in Ukraine.

They both rejected the attacks by the Western media that Russia was trying to turn Greece into a "Trojan horse" against Europe. "Let some of them stop commenting on the normal moves of the Greek government. Greece is not a "debt colony" but a sovereign state that exercises its right to a multilateral foreign policy," said Alexis Tsipras.

He added that, due to his government, "spring" had come in Russian-Greek relations.

Putin and Tsipras, and the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the two countries Sergey Lavrov and Nikos Kotzias respectively signed economic cooperation agreements and a common action programme for 2015 - 2016. The two leaders said that 2016 would be the "Year of Russia" in Greece and the "Year of Greece" in Russia. Celebrating the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II was also one of the topics discussed.

Before his meeting with Vladimir Putin the Greek Prime Minister had laid a wreath at the monument of the Unknown Soldier in the Red Square. Shortly thereafter, a picture of the event appeared on his Twitter profile with the following comment, "Paying tribute at the monument of the Unknown Soldier to the people who gave their lives for the victory against authoritarianism."

The Greek newspaper Kathimerini notes that the visit of the Greek Prime Minister to Moscow had no results. Leading analysts comment that Alexis Tsipras’ meeting with Vladimir Putin might provoke negative reactions among the Baltic republics and as a result, an agreement with the creditors might be impossible.