Greece’s Russian Fantasy; Russia’s European Delusion

Greeks, well informed about their status as borrowers in advance with bank closures and limits on withdrawals, rejected foreign creditors’ conditions for aid in a referendum. “Many Greeks see Russia as a state that upholds its sovereignty and defies the EU diktat,” writes Pavel K. Baev for Brookings. Russia, sanctioned for its military interventions in Ukraine, has its own economic struggles with low oil prices and a shrinking budget. Russian pensioners won’t appreciate their government bailing out a neighboring country ostracized for excessive spending, then balking at paying off loans. Russian offered a quick promise, extending a gas pipeline into Greece, but that won’t provide the necessary emergency relief. Ordinary Greeks and Russians endure unnecessary suffering as their leaders engage in foreign policy, not with cooperation that could protect Europe as a whole, but for short-term gains in power. – YaleGlobal