Abstract: (By Polina Khimshiashvili. RBC Daily, May 30, 2016, p. 2.
Condensed text:) [Russian President] Vladimir Putin visited a
European Union country for the first time since November 2015.
While in Greece, he saw tourism potential. But [from his Athens
press conference] he warned that if NATO’s missile defense shield
expands, they will find themselves the targets of Russian
missiles. ... was Vladimir Putin’s first visit to Greece since 2007.
Despite the long hiatus, relations between Moscow and Athens
remained strong. In the wake of Russia’s annexation of the Crimea
[see Current
Digest, Vol. 66, No. 12, pp. 3 - 11 ]and the start of the
conflict in eastern Ukraine, Greece has remained one of Moscow’s
main EU partners (Greece has been a member of the EU since 1981,
and of NATO since 1952). Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras visited
Russia twice in 2015:He came to the Kremlin in April [see Current Digest,
Vol. 67, No. 15, pp. 17 - 18 ], and attended the St. Petersburg
International Economic Forum in June. In January 2016, Putin and
Greek President [Prokopis] Pavlopoulos opened the Year of Greece in
Russia and vice versa. ... On Friday [May 27] in Athens, Tsipras told the Russian president
that [Greece] made a strategic choice in favor of strengthening
ties with Russia, since weshare historically close religious and
spiritual bonds.However, these close spiritual bonds are not
reflected on the economic level, both leaders admitted. Trade
turnover has been falling since 2013. In 2014, it amounted to $4.17
billion, a drop of 39% from the previous year. In 2015, trade
turnover fell by another 34%, coming in at $2.7 billion, Putin said
during a joint press conference. ... Russian presidential aide YuryUshakov said the decline in trade
was due to [Western] sanctions and currency fluctuations in both
countries. During a briefing in Moscow on Wednesday, he said that
Russia is not going to lift the food embargo [it introduced in
response to Western sanctions] for certain EU countries. Finally,
Tsipras acknowledged during a press conference that his country is
interested in supplying agricultural products to Russia, but that
this could be done by establishing joint enterprises.. . . ... Presidential aide YuryUshakov said that the politicians touched
on issues of bilateral cooperation during the talks. According to
Ushakov, the talks did not include the issue of missile defense,
with which Putin started the press conference. But it is this issue
that drew the Russian leader’s harshest rhetoric. ... Responding to a question on how security-related issues affect
economic cooperation in Europe, Putin stated that deployingUS
missile defense components in Romania would negatively impact this
aspect. will be forced to take the necessary steps. And while
yesterday parts of Romania had no idea what it meant to be in the
crosshairs, today we will have to take certain steps to ensure ... our security.*** The same thing applies to Poland, Putin
warned. ... He said that Russia has been repeating this like a mantra
since the early 2000s, but that still no one listens to us. The
whole world has seen our capabilities, and the capabilities of our
medium-range ground- and sea-launched missiles. We are not
violating [any treaties], but the ground-based Iskander [missile]
complexes with a range of up to 500 kilometers have also proven
themselves, the Russian president said in reference to possible
countermeasures. ... In response to Putin’s threats, Polish Foreign Minister
WitoldWaszczykowski issued the standard statement that Russia is
not under threat: This system is to defend Europe against a
missile attack from the Middle East. He stressed that the military
presence of the US and NATO forces is a response to very
aggressive behavior and threats from the Russian authorities. ... Putin also spoke harshly about energy projects with the EU. We
need preliminary guarantees, not just conversations about how this
is of great mutual interest - we alreadyfell for that once, and
we’re not spending money on these [empty promises] anymore, he
said in outlining the prerequisites necessary for future energy
projects.He recalled the fate of South Stream, which Moscow
scrapped after failing to get the go-ahead from the European
Commission, even though work on [the pipeline] had already begun
[see Current
Digest, Vol. 66, No. 49, pp. 8 - 10]. ... Commenting on Putin’s statements regarding missile defense,
energy projects and Ukraine, Tsipras repeatedly stressed his
country’s readiness to serve as a bridge between Russia and the EU.
Our role is, naturally***to help smooth the differences in order
to find a foundation for rapprochement between the EU and Russia,
Tsipras said in response to a question about how Greece intends to
vote on the issue of extending the EU’s anti-Russian sanctions. ... Putin assured everyone that sanctions were not discussed during
the talks, and that Moscow is not expecting miracles from Greece.
Publication Year: 2016
Publication Date: 2016-05-30
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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