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International News Title: U.S. Urges Greece to Reject Russian Energy Project The United States, wading into the international efforts to shape Greece’s economic and geopolitical orientation, is pushing the leftist government in Athens to resist Russia’s energy overtures. A State Department envoy in Athens urged Greece on Friday to embrace a Western-backed project that would link Europe to natural gas supplies in Azerbaijan, rather than agree to a gas pipeline project pushed by Moscow. The dueling sales pitches, reminiscent of a Cold War struggle, come as debt-burdened Greece is desperate for new sources of revenue of the sort that a gas pipeline could bring. In an interview in Athens on Friday, before meeting with Greek officials, the State Department envoy, Amos J. Hochstein, said Greece would increase its appeal to Western investors — and would help reduce the European Union’s dependence on Russian gas supplies — if it declined to play host to a pipeline proposed by the Russian state-controlled energy giant Gazprom. That pipeline would carry Russian gas to Europe through Turkey and Greece, bypassing pipelines that run through Ukraine. [...] Mr. Hochstein said Moscow’s interests were not aligned with Greece’s financial needs. The Russian pipeline plan, he said in the interview, “is not an economic project” but is “only about politics.” [...] The Greek foreign minister, Nikos Kotzias, has said that the Greek portion of the Russian-backed project could be worth billions of dollars to his country. [...] The discussions between Moscow and Athens come as Greece’s funds are running low and it desperately seeks new investment. Without new revenue or additional loans, Greece risks defaulting on billions of dollars of foreign debt in coming months. That could force a Greek exit from the euro currency union and would have unpredictable implications for financial markets in Europe and beyond. [...] European and international lenders continue to hold back on releasing €7.2 billion in funds from a bailout program, demanding economic overhauls in Greece that the Tsipras government has so far been reluctant to carry out. [...] The Russian proposal is for a pipeline called Turkish Stream. It is intended to replace an earlier Russian initiative for a pipeline to Europe called South Stream, which Mr. Putin was forced to abandon late last year because of European Union rules that would have made the project unpalatable to Moscow by requiring Gazprom to share the pipeline with other suppliers. The South Stream pipeline, running under the Black Sea, would have brought gas into the European Union through Bulgaria. [...] Mr. Hochstein met with the Greek energy minister, Panagiotis Lafazanis, who said afterward that there had been a “very essential and honest exchange of views.” “We want a multilevel and independent energy policy that will be formed exclusively on the basis of our national interest, the interest of the Greek people and, of course, the cooperation and energy security in our region and in Europe,” Mr. Lafazanis said. [...] The European Commission in Brussels, the executive arm of the European Union, has long accused Moscow of using gas pipelines, including ones not yet built, to exercise control over European energy systems and to partition supplies and keep prices high — especially in Baltic countries like Lithuania with few alternatives for suppliers. Last month, after years of European Union threats of taking such an action, Margrethe Vestager, the European antitrust chief, charged Gazprom with abusing its dominance in natural gas markets — a move amounting to a direct challenge to the authorities in Moscow. [...] Gazprom could eventually face a fine exceeding €10 billion. But the larger worry for Gazprom in that case is the prospect of being forced to allow more competition in markets it has long controlled. Mr. Hochstein said on Friday that Gazprom’s proposed Turkish Stream would be bad for Europe because it would extend Europe’s dependence on Russian gas. [...] Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest
#1. To: A Pole (#0)
I'm not sure the Russians will build the new pipeline but this does give Greece some leverage against further EU crackdowns on Greece's spending habits.
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