Ahead of negotiations on Turkish Stream Greece asks Russia for money
The Prime Minister of Greece, Alexis Tsipras stated in an interview with TASS news agency that Greece hopes that Russia will make strategic investments in its economy, including infrastructure, ports and energy.
According to him, he plans to request these large investments during an official visit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, on December 7th.
The Greek economy, with a debt exceeding 150% of the GDP “has good opportunities of a strategic nature,” stressed Tsipras.
Tsipras admitted that for now, Russian investments in Greece consist mainly in “buying real estate.” The government would like to see investors in the areas of agriculture, infrastructure, the processing industry, ports, and “especially the energy sector,” stated Tsipras.
Russia's gas conglomerate Gazprom has been considering Greece as a potential route for the European branch for the second line of the Turkish Stream pipeline, which reached Turkey in late November.
Gazprom plans to extend the European branch of the pipeline to Serbia and Hungary.
Initially, Gazprom planned to run the pipeline through Italy, but Italy refused after the failure of the previous project South Stream, having found an alternate supplier in Israel.
Earlier, the Russian newspaper Vedomosti reported, citing a Gazprom representative that the second option is to lay the Turkish Stream pipeline through Bulgaria which will allow to replace the gas deliveries that currently go through the territory of Ukraine.