PM, Putin to discuss gamut of bilateral ties

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Russian President Vladimir Putin are expected to discuss a whole range of Greco-Russian bilateral relations in their meeting Wednesday in Sochi, with special emphasis on energy issues.

With the Ukrainian crisis further testing Moscow’s relations with the West, Mitsotakis will seek to strike a delicate balance and keep the meeting at a purely bilateral level, with energy at the top.

Tellingly, government sources have stressed that Greece is a member of the EU and NATO, which forms the basis of its foreign policy.

“It supports and respects the decisions of these organizations. But that does not preclude the expansion of relations with Russia,” the sources said, while also noting that Greece’s ties with Russia, a permanent member of the UN Security Council committed to the international law of the sea, “are historic.”