Greece does not agree with theWesternsanctions imposed on Russia and believes that they lead toadead-end alley.
This is what Greece’s Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said today in an exclusive interview with the official Russian press agency TASS.
Speaking about the sanctions, Tsipras said: "An economic war as a prolongation of an actual war is adead-end alley policy”.
Tsipras spoke with the TASS Deputy Director General Mikhail Gusman today in Athens abouthis visit to Moscow due on April 8 and about“the possibility for a true reset of our relations and for giving a new impetus to the Russian-Greek relations which have very deep roots in history and were hammered out in a joint struggle of our nations,".
The prime minister deplored the way Westernrelations with Russia have been frozen over the past years:"I do not know if this is like the Siberian winter, but this was winter and now we are having spring and should support this spring for the real development of our relations," he said.
Russia recently said it wouldexplore ways of softening the food embargo for Greece and Hungary."I cannot rule out that we can even partly resort to unilateral measures if our partners properly perceive them,” said the Russianminister of economic development AlexeyUlyukayev.
In his turn, the Russianforeign minister Sergey Lavrov saidRussia would consider offering financial assistance to Greece if Athens asks Moscow for help.
"Greece could be a bridge between the West and Russia”, said Tsipras in the interview with TASS."We should see how our nations and countries can really cooperate in many spheres - economy, energy, trade, agriculture, and find out where we can help each other and, first of all, look into how our cooperation can be constructive as I indeed believe that Greece, as a member of the EU, can be a link and a bridge between the West and Russia," he said.
According to Tsipras, 2016 is an important possibility for developing relations as this will be the cross-year of Russia and Greece.
"In 2015 we together mark the 70th anniversary of the Great anti-fascist victory and the victory of nations over Nazism," Tsipras said. "This anniversary has great importance both for the people of Russia and Greece. Our nations hammered out brotherly relations as they conducted a joint fight in the critically important historical moments," he said. Tsipras added that Russia and Greecehave paid the largest death toll in World War II.
Asked about Europe’s new "security architecture" (архитектурa безопасностив Европе, a term which for the Russians includes NATO and the missile shield the US is installing in Eastern Europe), Tsipras said:
"I asked the question many times and nobody could give me an answer. In my view, Europe’s new "security architecture” should include Russia."
"In Russia, besides the very important meetings that I will have with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and the Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia, I will also have a chance to make a speech in one of the central universities of Moscow," Tsipras said.
http://www.neurope.eu/article/tsipras-europe%E2%80%99s-security-architecture%E2%80%9D-should-include-russia