The international conference “Back to the Cold War or Forward to a Stable Relationship? Political and Energy Relations between Russia and the West in the Black Sea” was held in Athens on January 22–23. The event was organized by the Hellenic Foundation for European & Foreign Policy and was attended by around 70 experts, diplomats, government officials, journalists and heads of public organizations from across Europe.
RIAC Member and Director of the Institute of Europe in Moscow...
Kvashnin Yuri (Ph.D in History)
(Head, European Union Studies Department, IMEMO RAN, RIAC Expert)
Today the Russian-Greek economic relations are affected by a triple crisis: the ongoing crisis in Greece, the crisis in Russian–EU relations and Russia's economic hardships.
As for the first one, at the beginning of this year Greece's economic prospects looked bright. 2013 was the first year when Greece achieved primary surplus ...
... to measures on strengthening bilateral ties in political, economic and humanitarian areas.
The debate was opened by RIAC Director General Andrey Kortunov, RIEAS Director John Nomikos and Ambassador Vladimir Chkhikvishvili, Russia's top diplomat in Greece in 2008-2014.
Session one covered Russia-Greece political and security cooperation, with reports made by Dr. Nomikos and Vladimir Olenchenko, Senior Research Fellow of the EU Studies Department at RAS Institute of World Economy and International ...
... Academic Advisor based in Seattle, USA)
Ever since April, and a much publicized re-entry in the capital markets to secure a loan, the Greek PM Mr. Samaras has taken no breaks from advertising his government's supposed "success" in leading Greece "out of her crisis." With the exception of Mr. Samaras's narrow circle of advisers, everyone knows that this claim is bogus. In October, Mr. Samaras took another bold, but utterly inane, step in announcing that Greece was about ...
... regional security as a host of military operations, including Afghanistan and Kuwait, and as the holder of the British sovereign bases have turned it into an indispensable partner of the West. The island has large expatriate populations from mainland Greece, Russia and the UK, maintains vital economic interests in the wider Middle East, but remains partially occupied by Turkey which has dispatched thousands of soldiers for the protection of an increasing expatriate population of Turkish nationals ...
... had that honor), Portugal has attracted significant public attention. After a painstaking implementation of international creditors’ guidelines, Lisbon has progressed along the path of reform and returned to the world credit market. Spain and Greece have also been rather successful in bridling the negative economic trends to prove that PIGS countries
[1]
offer a good example of the focused execution of complicated homework.
PIGS: P for Portugal
Portugal, Ireland, Greece, and Spain emerged ...
... IMEMO RAN, RIAC expert
Dr. John M Nomikos
,
Director, Research Institute for European and American Studies (Athens)
George Protopapas
,
Media Analyst, Research Institute for European and American Studies (Athens)
The partnership between Russia and Greece is a unique case of international relations, in that Russia and Greece have no serious mutual claims that might impede further development or enhancement of their cooperation. Nor are there any permanent irritant factors hindering initiatives on ...
Analytical Note
Historical Preview
Russian-Greek bilateral relations have deep historical roots. From the 18
th
centuryonwards, as a constituent region in the Ottoman Empire, and as an independent state since 1830, Greece has had particular geostrategic significance for Russia. Due to its geographic situation Greece for protracted periods acted as a pro-Russian and Orthodox mainstay in the Balkans (alongside Bulgaria, Serbia and Montenegro). Greece’s independence ...
During the first decade of the 21st century, as long as national and international security is concerned, terrorism remains a major issue. The events of September 11th 2001 in the USA, March 11th 2004 in Madrid, July 7th 2005 in London and most recently July 18th 2012 in Burgas, Bulgaria, indicate, or actually prove, that the distribution and analysis of information by those who are competent to eliminate international terrorism is inefficient.
Intelligence cooperation is still an obstacle for...