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Greece and Russia sign Memorandum on Turkish Stream pipeline

All good on the Eastern Front. Greece and Russia signed a memorandum of cooperation on the Turkish Stream gas pipeline, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is going to meet President Vladimir Putin in the afternoon. The Greek delegation officially attends the Saint Petersburg International Economic Forum.

Friday morning, Russia and Greece signed a preliminary agreement to set up a joint venture to build a pipeline through Greece.

The memorandum on construction of the extension of the Turkish Stream gas pipeline through Greece was signed by Greek Energy Minister Panagiotis Lafazanis and his Russian counterpart Alexander Novak.

“Our meeting today is a historical meeting… The memorandum expresses the readiness of both sides to bring the south direction of the pipeline to implementation,” Lafazanis said, according to Sputnik news agency.

“The Greek extension of the Turkish Stream project is called the South European pipeline,” Novak said at the St. Petersburg Economic Forum. Construction will start in 2016 and be completed by 2019.

“The two countries will have equal shares in the company,” Novak added. Construction of the pipeline in Greece will be financed by Russia, and Athens will return the money afterward.

Lafazanis estimates the cost of construction at 2 billion euro.

“Russian gas giant Gazprom had earlier proposed footing the bill for building a Greek pipeline extension of the Russia-Turkish energy venture TurkStream,” spokeswoman for the Russian energy ministry said told AFP.

The project aims to deliver gas to Europe while bypassing the Ukraine.

Greece’s European partners and the U.S.A. have strongly opposed Greece’s involvement in the Russian project. But, given the current circumstances of the Greek – Creditors bailout talks, one would have been surprised if Athens had not signed the memorandum.

An additional politically binding memorandum is expected to be signed in the next weeks.

PS I heard that Saint Petersburg is a wonderful place full of culture, opera, ballet, Kandinsky and other nice things. Life is not just scaremongering and bailout talks, after all.

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28 comments

  1. Good luck with Russia: https://www.youtube.

    In case the link will be censored, see – Holodomor English on youtube. I can add some more info about that, how it was organized by Moscow e.t.c., how Stalin exported food during starvation …, Socialist Capital Accumulation Theory of Preobrazensky …

    • Giaourti Giaourtaki

      Wasn’t the term “reform” the way it’s used today by Brussels and Berlin brainsick douchebags not invented by the Stalinist capitalists?
      The Ukrainian nationalists and democrats were fighting together with Trotsky against the real revolution in 1918-22 and afterwards they all were lying about it until today (check for Nestor Machno), a revolution where Russians, Ukrainians, Jews and Greeks were fighting all together in it.

      • I am afraid I do not understand what do you want to say.

        • Giaourti Giaourtaki

          Nestor Machno, also very active in your beloved Dumbass, is the most prominent Ukrainian, forgotten in Ukraine and demonized by Russia and now there is a war for Monsanto and/or Chinese genetic engineered corn and soya but who pays the Indios who invented corn not even respect? Stupid white men who call themselves Russian or Ukrainian and must leave their Dumbass to make room for corn and soya. Bravo! Lets feed the world

          • Hard to say if it is soya, probably just Putins puppeteers want some new game.

          • Giaourti Giaourtaki

            The deals with China are much older than the ones with Monsato and they had/have already test-fields

          • OK but Chinese do not care if it belongs to Russia or Ukraine, they just buy what they want like recently they bought large portions in Russian oil fields because Putler has no money to pay oil compnies debts as oil went down. Russia is moving to Chinese hands but people are applauding Putin (very much like in Greece).

          • Giaourti Giaourtaki

            If they wanna have their oil more expensive they have to blow up ISIS but car-drivers and airplane-users love’em so much, with every beheadings the price went down and then you could see at the gas-stations all these brave planet gasers knee down to Mekka and thank “Allah, again you’ve saved me two cents!” but I guess I’m too stupid for this whole hypocritical Russia China thing anyway, as the one that should be boycotted should be Saudi Arabia.
            If they all support these bastards anyway why don’t they sell all pro sportsmen and (-women) to the Sheiks in the desert, the crisis would be solved fast.

      • Btw Giaourti, how could Trocky fight again Stalin and live with him and Kamenev and Zinoviev and other comrades in the same house they received from party?

        • Giaourti Giaourtaki

          No idea, but given that Trotsky’s troops were sometimes fighting together with the anarchist black army before his Red Army was finally build up and strong enough to extinguish all revolutionary movements in Russia and Ukraine.
          Just look for VOLIN or VOLINE “the unknown revolution” and for NABAT or classwar inside socialism

          • Yes I have not much knowledge about anarchists, but they probably helped Trocky during revolution. On the other hand he was not much different from Stalin or Lenin. The Russian propaganda story about Trocky selling Russia to captalists is just bullshit. There were concessions (because bolsheviks needed money and were unable to exploit resources so quickly) but it was not Trocky’s own work as it is untill now pictured in propaganda (to apologize Stalin), concessions were collective decisions made by com. party.

          • Giaourti Giaourtaki

            What you are talking about happened after Trotsky extinguished all Anarchists and the methods against the kulaks Stalin got from Trotsky

          • keeptalkinggreece

            what are you two talking about?

          • About future of Greece may be (I hope not because all Greeks I met were nice people)

    • Russia today =/= Stalin just like germany today=/= hitler.
      That being said while its a good thing to develop economic ties to other countries, the notion that Russia and or China should be POLITICAL examples instead of what we have in Europe today is just plain ridiculous.

      • Giaourti Giaourtaki

        Interesting enough that no media outside Greece reports that not only Cosco bids for Pireas or that the tender for oil drillings in the Ionian ends in 4 weeks…

      • Russia today is trying to apologize Stalin (including the necessity of Holodomor and Molotov-Ribbentrop pact). Putler personally spoke about the necessity for Stalin to make pact with Germany based on which Germans took west Poland (1/9/1939) and Soviets the east part (just few days later).

  2. I am afraid, it is not “All good on the Eastern Front”. The crucial fight for Greece is for its future in the EU. This step pulls Greece away from the West and into the Russian orbit.

  3. Time for Greece to turn to Russia, China and other BRICs. First Europe is not the EU, whatever happens Greece will stay on the same place and will still be Europe, whether the eu trools like that or not.
    Maybe if Greece really turns away form the sociopaths in the EU, some time from now, the people of europe will look at Greece as an example. Sometimes you only value something after you loose it.
    Greece as nothing left for her in the euro and faking that it is an equal part of the “European family”.
    Greece options are slavery and humiliation in the euro, or a way forward to growth outside it.

  4. Looks to me Greek farmer still knows what needs to pour into tractor. 🙂 Good.

    • Giaourti Giaourtaki

      One can run a tractor with wind-turbines, tesla-batteries or even pedalled by human power or a mix of all of it but that won’t happen as long as regions don’t get out of this import/export bullshit.

      • well there are that other things called: efficiency, intermittency, energy returned on energy invested (EROI), sustainability of grid and etc etc in real world that prevent that.

        • Giaourti Giaourtaki

          Not efficiency but corruption to buy gas from dictators as some years ago German and Korean shipyards already created 200 meter long fright-ships that made 25 nautical miles per hour just out of wind-turbines and no burner at all, that’s perfect for the whole fleet of Greece – “Project Meltemi” – just ban all other engines except the ones run by human power or the “Powerwall” batteries, all the leftover energy one can store in this batteries even on lonely islands or put into network at harbours.
          Also windmills are much more effective than the shit out of steel and concrete, much cheaper too and no garbage after 25 years, the woods they destroy just for delivery and maintenance can grow and be used again instead. If one puts up a program this direction you’ll have some 300.000 jobs created, the energy will be cheap to nuthing in a few years and leave the capitalist sector; most of the 300.000 will work afterwards in tourism, be it creating pedal powered submarines or whatever, pedal powered small track from Corinth to Kalamata aso