MERKEL POWERBASE AT RISK AS TSIPRAS COURTS PUTIN
(c) Sputnik/ Sergey Guneev
EUROPE
15:07 09.04.2015(updated 15:58 09.04.2015) Get short URL
1704280
Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’ gamble in taking a two-day trip
to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow may well pay-off,
but may well be at the expense of the reputation and powerbase of
German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Tsipras’ decision to go to Moscow, amid his huge bailout battle with
Europe should come as no surprise to historians. Most of the current
Greek minority population in Russia comprises descendants of Medieval
Greek refugees, from the Byzantine Empire, the Ottoman Balkans,
and Pontic Greeks from the Empire of Trebizond and Eastern Anatolia.
Despite Tsipras being atheist, he is keen to play-up the Orthodox
Christian bond between Greece and Russia, which will play well to
the significant population of Greek descendants who make up large
communities in Moscow and St Petersburg. He even laid a wreath at
the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
Having paid off its latest loan ($490m) to the International Monetary
Fund on April 9, all eyes are on the next payment Greece will have to
make every week in April and the further $7.75 billion it will have
to find in May and June, while struggling to pay its own government
staff and state pensions.
Greece Exit or Russian Sanctions?
By going to Moscow, Tsipras is playing a grand game. Germany’s Angela
Merkel is on record as having said a Greek Exit from the Euro would
mean the end of the European dream. Many analysts believe a Grexit
would consign the Euro to a less valuable currency, with countries
able to pick and choose when and how they adopt it. It would devalue
the brand.
Better Off Alone? Grexit Could Be Better for EU, Better for Greece
Meanwhile, with the European Union due to vote on whether to continue
— or even increase — sanctions against Russia in June, Tspiras has
one other trump card up his sleeve. The vote requires all 28 states
to agree, and Tsipras has threatened to derail the sanction vote,
which would prove hugely damaging to the EU, as a body of states.
There have already been rumblings from some countries who are unhappy
with the course of action against Russia over Ukraine and Crimea.
“We need to leave behind this vicious cycle,” Tsipras told reporters.
“Greece is a sovereign country with an unquestionable right to
implement a multi-dimensional foreign policy and exploit its
geopolitical role.”
Merkel is facing her own demons at home. She is aware of anti-Greek
bailout sentiment on the streets and is also squeezed politically
between the more conservative elements in the Christian Democratic
Union (CDU) and the Eurosceptic Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.
Under pressure to make Greece put an end to its culture of tax
avoidance and reform its economy, Merkel is stuck between being seen
to be tough on Greece and fearing the effect of a Grexit on the rest
of Europe.
(c) FLICKR/ ROBERT WALLACE Time to Pay: Greece Says Germany Owes $303
Billion for Nazi Atrocities Ahead of the vote on Russian sanctions
in June, Merkel may well see bending to the demand from Tsipras for
a more lenient approach to his country’s woes and agreeing a further
bailout as a price she has to pay for keeping the Euro together and
showing the EU remaining united in its stance against Moscow.
But in doing so, she will have lost face at home and been seen to
bend to Greece.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
