Greece one step before BRICS!

Greek Energy min. P. Lafazanis said Greece will probably submit request to participate in BRICS bank

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Speaking on ANA-MPA news agency on Friday, the Greek Environment and Energy Minister, Panagiotis Lafazanis, said that Greece secured Russia’s support to participate in the new development BRICS bank:

Greece is preparing and will probably submit a request to participate in the new development bank for BRICS countries and has secured Russia’s support on the issue, Productive Reconstruction, Environment and Energy Minister Panagiotis Lafazanis told ANA-MPA news agency on Friday evening. “During my meeting with Russian Deputy Finance Minister Sergey Storchak, we secured the decisive Russian support to Greece’s request for participation in the new development bank of BRICS countries. The relevant request for Greece’s participation…will be symbolic and will be paid in installments, while right after operations begin, it will be able to accept financial support,” the minister said. Lafazanis added that technical details were also discussed on how to submit the request so that it will be accepted after discussions within the Greek government conclude. He also noted that he also discussed the credit facility that will be provided by Russian banks to the Greek company which will undertake the construction of the new gas pipeline which will cross Greece. “Repayment of the Russian loan will be achieved by the profits made through the operation of the pipeline and this facility is not related to loans or economic assistance between states,” he said. amna.gr/eng

Meanwhile, Lafazanis also claimed that the US oppose extension of Russia’s Turkish Stream pipeline, which is the Greek part (Greek Stream), from the Turkish borders to Central Europe.

From sputniknews.com:

"Unfortunately, as to the pipeline with the Russian gas, the position of the United States is negative. The US side took this position officially during the recent meeting I personally had with the US official responsible for energy issues," Lafazanis said. "For all these reasons, we support the pipeline, we want it to be laid across the Greek soil and we are convinced that it would be an input to all the European nations and to Europe as such and we fully disagree with the position of the United States on this issue." [...] "The Russian pipeline, which will replace the Ukrainian transit road of the natural gas, is absolutely necessary for the energy security in Europe. This means that it has to be welcomed by all the EU member states and by the European peoples who understand the needs of having uninterruptable supplies of cheap natural gas," Panagiotis Lafazanis said. "TAP is a pipeline which will pass through Greece, of course, but it cannot satisfy the huge demands in natural gas of the European states and peoples," Lafazanis said, adding that the project would not be an alternative to the Turkish Stream. The Trans Adriatic Pipeline is a 2,170-mile project to transport Azerbaijan's natural gas to Europe. The Greek extension of a pipeline to pump Russian natural gas through Turkey to consumers in southern Europe could cost about 2 billion euros (some $2.2 bln), Greek Energy Minister Panagiotis Lafazanis told Sputnik on Friday. "We have not discussed yet how exactly the project will be financed. But we already know that the approximate cost of the pipeline will be around 2 billion euros and its construction will create about 20 000 working places," Lafazanis said. sputniknews.com

Obviously, in this new Cold War, Americans would never like to see Russia's geopolitical expansion in the East Mediterranean, and especially in regions that traditionally belong to the Western bloc for decades, but things are not so easy for them under current circumstances:

... the German political elite and the eurocrats play with fire, as they blackmail the economically devastated Greece, insisting on the same neoliberal policies that ruined the country. Greece may be forced to escape the eurozone prison and return to national currency in order to survive. The Russians will not waste the chance. They will offer an alternative through BRICS (evolving-fast-greece-closer-to-brics), and grab the opportunity for geopolitical expansion in the East Mediterranean, mainly through the game of the pipelines (fresh-smart-moves-by-putin-in).