Greek PM Alexis Tsipras spoke on the phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday, with the issue of Greece joining a proposed BRICS development bank discussed as well as bilateral trade and energy cooperation.

Nevertheless, the phone contacts comes amid still unsuccessful talks between the Greek government and creditors, and with Athens essentially missing a Friday payment to the IMF. The 300-million-euro instalment was “bundled” with other June payments.

In fact, after the Tsipras-Putin talks, Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov called for an agreement between Greece and Europe, as he said, while adding that it’s “early to talk about a Greek default”.

Tsipras will travel to St. Petersburg between June 18 and June 20 to participate in an international forum there, where he’s expected to again have face-to-face talks with Putin.

Another issue being closely watched internationally is the leftist Greek government’ s desire to host an extension of the “Turkish stream” pipeline carrying Russian natgas, the prospective “Greek stream” leg.

Referring to the prospect, RIA-Novosti reported that “Practical steps were discussed to implement agreements reached during the recent working visit of Alexis Tsipras to Russia, particularly the planned construction of the gas transport infrastructure across the territory of Turkey and Greece.”

Washington has more-or-less been apprehensive vis-a-vis the Russian project, while the EU also appears lukewarm, given chilly relations between the West and Russia over the Ukraine issue, and amid fears of a “Russian energy oligopoly” in the energy supply sector.