Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said the two countries are looking to increase energy ties
Moscow is considering shipping natural gas directly to Greece through the Turkish Stream Pipeline, which it hopes to build across Greek territory, reports International Business Times. The pipeline is planned to have a capacity of 47 billion cubic meters per annum, with construction costs of approximately €2 billion ($2.20 billion).
“Russia intends to support the recovery of the Greek economy by increasing cooperation in the energy sector,” said Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak. “Therefore, we are looking into options for facilitating direct energy supplies to Greece in the near future.”
Giorgos Tsipras, the head of the Greek Foreign Ministry’s economic relations department, welcomed Russia’s interest, calling it “a new beginning for economic relations between Russia and Greece.”
“The new government means that we will have more of a multidimensional foreign policy and economic foreign policy, and Russia is one of the countries that we will have more relationships with,” he said.
Causing concern for the E.U. and NATO
As Russia offers Greece more support in the midst of its financial crisis, European Union and NATO observers worry that Greece might undermine ongoing efforts to sanction Russia. “There is this new relationship with Moscow and Athens, so there is concern from NATO about how it might evolve in the future,” Thomas Wright, director of the Project on International Order and Strategy at the Brookings Institute, told the IB Times. “It’s becoming part of the geopolitical frame around what is happening in Europe right now.”
United States officials have previously called on Greece to turn away from Russian energy supplies, asking them instead to rely on a Western-backed pipeline from Azerbaijan.
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