Among the highlights of Alexis Tsipras’ much-anticipated political memoir “Ithaki” (Ithaca), released on Monday, are the former prime minister’s two visits to Russia – one to Moscow and one to St Petersburg – along with his broader contacts with the Russian government and President Vladimir Putin during the first half of 2015.
Regarding his first visit to Moscow in April 2015, Tsipras notes that, on the one hand, “the Russian political leadership maintained reservations about the benefits that any outreach by the Greek government to Moscow would offer them.” On the other hand, he himself prepared for the trip “fully aware of the international context,” aiming, as he writes, to strengthen Greece’s negotiating hand vis-à-vis its creditors.
In that first delegation – which, as Tsipras recounts, included then-foreign minister Nikos Kotzias, former deputy defense minister Costas Isychos, then-energy minister Panagiotis Lafazanis, and then-deputy finance minister Nadia Valavani – the former prime minister felt that half the members believed they were traveling to the Soviet Union rather than to modern Russia. “Even for me, who was younger and without many memories of the Cold War, this trip inspired a certain awe,” Tsipras admits. Looking back ten years later, he adds that sensitivity is no bad thing, provided it is tempered by logic.
Tsipras goes on to describe a scene in which, according to him, members of his delegation addressed then-Russian prime minister Dmitry Medvedev as “comrade prime minister.” “I imagined – I could almost hear him thinking to himself: ‘Is it possible? These people aren’t just old communists; they’re time travelers,’” Tsipras writes.
Substantively, the book focuses on the TurkStream project and the prospect of the pipeline crossing Turkey to reach Greece. “On the pipeline issue, their stance was positive but cautious. They proposed starting discussions but without committing to anything specific or offering a clear timetable,” he notes of the Russian position.
Similarly, Putin avoided delving into sensitive matters, preferring instead to ask about political developments in Greece. He remained non-committal and – according to Tsipras – whenever the conversation turned to Greece’s negotiations with its foreign lenders, he steered it elsewhere. On the pipeline, he was again positive but offered no concrete commitments.
A few months later, Tsipras made a second trip to Russia, this time to St Petersburg. There he had another meeting with Putin – an “important experience,” he writes. Tsipras outlined his intentions regarding negotiations with creditors and raised the possibility of a symbolic Russian purchase of €200-300 million in Greek government treasury bills.
Putin’s response, as recounted by Tsipras, was blunt. “He told me he would prefer to give the money we requested to an orphanage, because if he gave it to Greece it would be like throwing it into a garbage bin. Greece was a bankrupt country and would not be saved with 300 million euros. It needed 300 billion, not 300 million,” Tsipras writes, adding that Putin urged him “to come to terms with Merkel.”
There was also a phone call between the two leaders after the July referendum, in which a majority rejected the proposed bailout terms. Putin congratulated Tsipras, but the ex-premier writes that, after thanking him, the following exchange took place: “Do you have anything else to tell me regarding the day after? Any advice? What do you think I should do? I asked pointedly. ‘You will decide what you must do, but I believe that a viable agreement will be good for everyone.’”
Tsipras, who resigned as a SYRIZA MP in October, is widely expected to launch a new center-left party early next year.