La Russia she is ready to “consider one gas discount for Greece”. This was reported by the Moscow newspaper Kommersant, controlled by the methane giant Gazprom. A source from the Russian government explains to the newspaper that "the price is linked in the contract to the cost of oil, which has decreased substantially in recent months". Tomorrow the Greek premier Alexis Tsipras will meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, Duma Chairman Sergei Naryshkin and Patriarch Kirill.
Immediately after the Greek elections that brought Syriza to victory, the government in Athens dissociated itself from the request of European leaders to evaluate new sanctions towards Russia. At that point the Kremlin said it was ready to evaluate any requests for financial aid from Greece, then denied by both the Russian and Greek sides. The Greek prime minister said earlier this year that Greece and Cyprus should build a bridge of peace and cooperation between Europe and Russia over the crisis in Ukraine.
As for the methaneGreece is interested in gas discounts in 2016 and an easing of take-or-pay conditions, issues already discussed in a visit to Moscow last week by Greek Energy Minister Panagiotis Lafazanis. Under the current contract, for the second quarter of 2015 the price of Russian gas for the Greek company DEPA is just over $300. The contract was revised in February 2014: the price was reduced by 15%, while the take-or-pay volume was reduced to 2 bcm.
Meanwhile, tensions are rising again between Athens and Berlin. The Greek Deputy Minister of Finance, Dimistris Mardas, said in a speech in Parliament that Germany owes Greece 278,7 billion euros for war reparations, specifying that this figure includes 10,3 billion euros for a "compulsory loan" which was demanded by the Nazi occupation forces: "The accounts are from the General Accounting Office of the Greek State".
The Athens government wants Berlin to pay reparations for World War II and the Tsipras government's Justice Minister said last month he was ready to implement a 15-year-old Supreme Court ruling authorizing the seizure of German assets in Greece to repay the atrocities of the war.
According to several experts, the dispute actually reached a judicial stalemate after a German victory at the International Court of Justice in 2012 over Italy. According to the court, Italy had violated international law by allowing its courts to proceed in damages cases against Germany.
Berlin argues that the issue of reparations to Greece has already been resolved with payments made in the 1990s as part of agreements with several European countries. Furthermore, Germany recalls the agreements concluded in XNUMX to formally end the Second World War and therefore also any future claims for war damages.
On the financial side, finally, today mid-morning the index of the Greek stock exchange Athex it rises by about 1% and that of the banks by 1,8%. On Sunday the Greek finance minister, Yanis Varoufakis, said iThe country "intends to honor all obligations with all its creditors, ad infinitum".
Athens April XNUMX sent an updated list of reforms to the European Union and the International Monetary Fund to try to unblock financial aid and avoid default, but euro zone officials have said more work is needed before the funds can be released. Greece still has several weeks left before it runs out of liquidity, but the European Union and the International Monetary Fund have frozen aid, waiting for the reforms to become operational.
