ATHENS: Greece Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras will meet Vladimir Putin on 18 June, fuelling fears that Athens might seek a deal with Moscow that would circumvent EU sanctions on Russia.
Athens is looking to receive €5billion (£3.65bn, $5.55bn) in advance payments from Russia by agreeing to become a central hub for a Russia-Europe gas pipeline. The announcement of the meeting came as Tsipras told the Greek parliament that the EU was forcing “absurd” austerity measures on the cash-strapped country.
He accused the country’s creditors of doing all they could to scupper a cash-for –reforms deal that would give Greece a new injection of loans. He said the EU was pushing Athens towards default and the euro exit door, or Grexit.
The cost of Greek borrowing spiked after the government decided to delay and combine three payments to the IMF totalling €1.6billion until the end of the month. According to The Times, Tsipras is under growing pressure from his Syriza party’s powerful far-left to call an election over the creditors’ demand for pension cuts and increases in VAT. Panagiotis Kourouplis, the health minister, said: “The government will not go back on the promises we made to the Greek people. Let the Europeans assume the responsibility.”
