Productive Reconstruction, Environment and Energy Minister Panagiotis Lafazanis said “meetings he had in Moscow and their results may mark a new era in the two countries energy, economic and political relations.

In an interview with the Sunday edition of Avgi newspaper, the party-affiliated journal of the ruling radical leftist party, he said  “this new hopeful potential will become reality with specific agreements not only for the Russian pipeline but for other issues… I believe that Alexis Tsipras’ visit to Moscow and his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin may be a landmark towards this direction.”

He said a Russian pipeline deal marks “a new chapter of upgraded cooperation in the Greek-Russian relations that will include and the Russian natural gas pipeline in Greece may change positively the political image and and form of our region and of Europe.” He said that a Greek-Russian agreement would also help Greece in its negotiations with the EU at a time when the EU is facing the new Greek government with “unbelievable prejudice” as though it is a “half-colony.”