Putin Meets With Alexis Tsipras of Greece, Raising eyebrows in Europe

Putin Meets With Alexis Tsipras of Greece, Raising eyebrows in Europe

Welcoming the Greek prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, to Moscow at a time of badly strained relations between Russia and Europe, President Vladimir V. Putin on Wednesday declared that the visit “could not have come at a better time.” 

Mr. Tsipras, who is in tough negotiations with fellow European leaders over international financial assistance that Greece needs to avoid bankruptcy, arrived here on Tuesday night. His visit has raised eyebrows across the Continent because of a perception that he may be trying to gain leverage by cozying up to Mr. Putin. Mr. Putin said Wednesday that Mr. Tsipras had not asked for direct financial assistance from Russia. At a joint news conference at the Kremlin, the two leaders said that their discussion had focused on economic issues, including trade and tourism. They also said they talked about energy issues and Russia’s plans to build a natural gas pipeline through Turkey to Europe, in which Greece could play a crucial link. While Greek officials had said ahead of time that Mr. Tsipras would not use the visit to appeal directly for financial assistance from Mr. Putin, the prime minister’s public criticism of Western sanctions against Russia as “a road to nowhere” has heightened concerns that the visit is evidence of emerging cracks in European unity over the Kremlin’s policies in Ukraine. For Russia, the visit is a welcome departure from the mostly tense interactions between the Kremlin and the West over Ukraine, including mounting frustration at the lack of movement toward fulfilling the political components of a ceasefire agreement signed in February that was brokered by Mr. Putin, President François Hollande of France, President Petro O. Poroshenko of Ukraine, and the German chancellor, Angela Merkel. Mr. Tsipras, at the news conference following the meeting, reiterated his previous criticism of Western sanctions against Russia. “We have repeatedly declared our disagreement,” he said. “This is our point of view that we constantly express to our colleagues in the E.U. We don’t think that this is a fruitful decision. It’s practically an economic war.” “It will lead to cold war relations between the West and Russia,” he added. “We are working with the E.U. in this direction in the framework of our capabilities, with the aim of promoting dialogue, diplomacy and understanding.” Such public criticism is particularly sensitive for European leaders because the sanctions against Russia automatically expire on July 31, and a unanimous decision by the European Council is needed to extend them. So far, senior Western officials have generally said that there has not been sufficient progress in resolving the crisis in eastern Ukraine to warrant a rollback in sanctions. While the visit may prove to be strategically useful for Greece and Russia, the meeting with Mr. Putin yielded little in the way of concrete results. For instance, there was no immediate announcement that Russia would grant an exception to the ban on European agricultural products that Greece has requested in hopes of resuming exports, particularly of soft fruits. Instead, Mr. Putin and Mr. Tsipras looked on as their foreign ministers signed an agreement for a year of cultural exchange in 2016. Then, Mr. Putin and Mr. Tsipras signed a “joint action plan” for 2015­16 that called generally for increased cooperation in various spheres, including trade, tourism and energy. The increasing isolation of Russia has led the Kremlin to make substantial efforts to illustrate its improving relations with Asia, and the Russian news media on Wednesday also played up an invitation that was extended to Mr. Putin to visit Thailand. That invitation was received by Prime Minister Dmitri A. Medvedev, who was in Bangkok on an official state visit focused on economic ties. In Greece and among the nation’s European partners, the meeting between Mr. Tsipras and Mr. Putin has been viewed as an effort by the new Greek leader to seek allies as the country runs out of cash amid a deadlock with creditors over a desperately needed bailout of 240 billion euros, or about $260 billion. Greece is on the edge of financial collapse, and recently warned that it would have trouble funding government operations and repaying some of its lenders. In a bid to quell concerns of a default, the Greek finance minister, Yanis Varoufakis, made a surprise trip to Washington this weekend, where he assured Christine Lagarde, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund, that Athens would come through with a €450 million payment that is due on Thursday. Greece, however, will still need billions more in financial assistance from other nations for the foreseeable future, and any new aid package is likely to come with harsher austerity terms than Mr. Tsipras would like. The Greek government on Wednesday continued to wrestle with its financial problems, and in an auction of six­month Treasury bills, raised nearly €1.14 billion. That money will help it meet obligations coming due next week on older six­month bills that will be maturing. But as a sign of continued investor skepticism about Greece’s prospects, the government was forced to sell the bill at a yield of 2.97 — a notably high borrowing cost in the current era of low global interest rates. By strengthening ties with Moscow, analysts said Mr. Tsipras might be testing the waters to determine whether Russia would be an ally in the future, should Greece find itself backed into a corner. But Russia has been grappling with its own financial difficulties brought 4/8/2015 Putin Meets With Alexis Tsipras of Greece, Raising Eyebrows in Europe ­about by a sharp decline in oil prices and by Western sanctions. In recent days, the ruble has recovered somewhat against the dollar, and the price of oil has also stabilized, although it is lower than Russia needs it to be to maintain its budget in coming years. There are, however, steps that Russia could take to assist Greece, including a partial easing of the countersanctions. Greece is also said to be seeking a discount on Russian natural gas, perhaps as part of a larger deal with Gazprom, the Russian state­controlled energy giant. That deal could include construction of a pipeline through Greece as part of an effort by Russia to build a pipeline through Turkey that would help end its reliance on Ukraine for transporting gas to customers in Europe. Western diplomats have insisted that ultimately Greece would not stray far from its European partners, and indeed could not survive financially without their help. Still, there are signs of alarm. Guy Verhofstadt, a member of the European Parliament and the former prime minister of Belgium, posted his disapproval on Twitter: “The Greek Prime Minister should stop trying to play #Putin against the EU. Putin cannot save #Greece, the EU can.” In an interview with the German daily Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung this weekend, Martin Schulz, the president of the European Parliament, warned Mr. Tsipras against “alienating” the European Union, and said it would be “unacceptable if Tsipras jeopardized Europe’s common policy on Russia in return for Russian help.” David M. Herszenhorn reported from Moscow, and Liz Alderman from Paris. Niki Kitsantonis contributed reporting from Athens.