Of course, Greece’s involvement in this alliance (now renamed the 17+1 CEEC) has broadened its geographical boundaries to the west and is especially important as Greece’s Port of Piraeus is a strategic east-west trade gate way for the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) into Europe centered on the China-Europe Land-Sea Express Route. Greece is painfully aware that its survival depends upon China’s BRI, as the EU programs for austerity, privatization and bailouts have brought only death and despair with a collapse of youth employment, crime rate spikes and suicide. It is also not lost on anyone that this breakthrough follows hot on the heels of Italy’s joining of the Belt and Road Initiative on March 26 and also serves as a precursor to the second Belt and Road Summit which will take place in Beijing at the end of April, involving over 126 nations who have already signed MOUs with the BRI and thousands of international businesses.

Ten additional BRI-connected agreements were signed between Croatia and China before the 17+1 Summit including the modernizing of rail lines (especially from Zagreb to the Adriatic port of Rijeka), telecommunications cooperation between Huawei and Croatian Telecom and major port, roads, harbors, education and cultural cooperation.

The Belt and Road Initiative, as Tsipras aptly pointed out, is not just another set of infrastructure programs designed to counterbalance western hegemony, but is rather a “new model of regional and global cooperation” founded upon a principle of mutual development and long term thinking not seen in the west since the death of Franklin Roosevelt and the takeover of the Anglo-American Deep State that ensued.

The fact that China formalized an economic and trade cooperation agreement with the Russian-led Eurasian Economic Union in May 2018 is extremely relevant as it incorporated its five nation membership of Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan directly into the BRI. Already China has invested $98 billion into the real economies of the EEU involving 168 BRI-connected projects.

The new model of development which has increasingly won over central, and eastern Eurasian countries as well as Greece and Italy have provided a breath of fresh air for citizens everywhere who are looking with despair upon a Trans-Atlantic system which can do nothing but demand obedience to a defunct set of rules that commands only austerity, hyperinflationary banking practices and no long term investment into the real economy. Thus the technocratic mobilization against the BRI over the past days in response to this new paradigm can only be seen as an absurd attempt to save a system which has already failed.

The Technocrats Defend their New World Disorder

Two recent counter-operations against the BRI and the new win-win operating system it represents are worth mentioning. The first is found in the formation of a trilateral alliance between the American-based Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), Canada’s Finance and Development Agency (FinDev Canada) and fifteen members of the European Union announced on April 11. A second counter-operation was created several days earlier with the Canada-Germany-France-Japan “Alliance for Multilateralism” during the G7 meeting in France.

OPIC Acting President and CEO David Bohigian (Center) signed a memorandum of understanding with FinDev Canada Managing Director Paul Lamontagne (right) and EDFI Chairman Nanno Kleiterp (left).

While OPIC was founded in 1971, its use as a subversive force against the BRI was formalized on July 30, 2018 when it created a trilateral alliance with Japan and Australia in order to finance infrastructure in the Pacific basin. Added to this, a second trilateral alliance was created on April 11, 2019 when Canada’s Paul Lamontagne (head of FinDev Canada), the European Development Finance Institution’s Nanno Kleiterp and OPIC President David Bohigian signed a new agreement to create a parallel infrastructure financing mechanism. Taking aim at China, the press release stated that the alliance “will enhance transactional, operational, and policy-related cooperation among participants and underscores their commitment to providing a robust alternative to unsustainable state-led models.”

At this signing Bohigian stated “we’re trying to hold up an example for the world of the way development finance should work” clearly attacking China’s “incompetent” concept of development finance and thus ignoring the fact that over 800 million people have directly been lifted out of poverty by China’s approach to investment. Bohigian was clearly hoping that the world would ignore the vast debt slavery and chaos spread by 50 years of IMF-World Bank dominance that has produced no real growth of nations. Although the American BUILD Act has increased US government funding to OPIC from $29 billion to $60 billion over one year, no serious integrated design for development has been presented and instead provides fodder for laughter at best.

The other anti-BRI operation mentioned is the German-French-Japanese-Canadian “Alliance for Multilateralism” which saw Canada’s Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland stating at a press conference in France that “Canada has formally joined a German French coalition armed at saving the international world order from destruction by various world dictators and autocrats”. While Freeland didn’t mention Trump by name here, France’s ambassador to Canada Kareen Rispal was more candid stating “Mr. Trump doesn’t like to value multilateralism”. Citing his withdrawal from COP21, and criticism of the WTO, UN and NATO the envoy continued “it sends the wrong message to the world if we think that because Mr. Trump is not in favor of multilateralism, it doesn’t mean we- I mean countries like Canada, France and Germany and many others- are not still firm believers.”

What exactly this “Alliance for Multilateralism” IS remains another question entirely, as no actual policy was put forth. After the smoke had cleared, it appears to be nothing more than a lemming-like club of hecklers yelling at Putin, Xi Jinping, Trump and other “bad people” who don’t wish to commit mass suicide under a Green New Deal and technocratic dictatorship.

Commenting on these developments in an April 10 webcast from Germany, Schiller Institute President Helga Zepp-Larouche made the following apt observation: “Geopolitics has to be thrown out of the window, and the New Silk Road is the way to industrialize Africa, to deal with the Middle East situation to get peace there, to establish a decent working situation between the United States, Russia and China: And that is for Europe what we should demand. And the best way to do that is that all of Europe would sign MOUs with the Belt and Road Initiative, then that would be the single most important thing to stabilize world peace and get the world into a different domain.”

With Russia and China leading a new coalition of nations fighting to uphold the principles of sovereignty, self-development and long term credit generation under the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative, a great hope has presented itself as the Titanic that is the City of London and Wall Street continues to sink ever faster into the icy waters of history.

Military guard was at the airport to greet the Russian leader in a welcoming ceremony – an unusual sign of special respect in view it was not an official, but a working visit.

F-16 fighters flew overhead as Vladimir Putin was met by Defense Minister Panos Kammenos.

This is the first time the Russian President visited the country in 10 years. Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras visited Moscow for talks with Putin twice last year, in April and June, ahead of his re-election in September. Greek President Prokopis Pavlopoulos visited Russia in January.

President Putin's trip to Greece is also his first visit to the EU this year. He attended the global climate talks in Paris at the end of 2015. Greece has kept close relations with Moscow even after the EU imposed economic sanctions in the summer of 2014 in response to Crimea becoming part of Russia and the tensions over Ukraine’s crisis.

The visit concluded with signing a number of bilateral agreements, including the Political Declaration for Greek-Russian dialogue on international and regional issues of mutual interest, the Declaration of Partnership for Modernization (on economic cooperation), as well as a number of cooperation agreements at ministerial level.

Mr Putin was accompanied by a delegation of ministers and businessmen whose companies either already operate in, or are interested in Greece. These include Gazprom’s Chairman Alexei Miller, Rosneft’s CEO Igor Sechin, and Russian Railways CEO Oleg Belozerov.

Trade and economy topped the agenda. Russia is one of Greece's main trading partners, but business has been hit by the sanctions and drop in commodity prices. In 2015 trade between the two countries fell by 33.7 percent to about $2.8 billion. Ninety percent of that loss was exports from Russia to Greece. Russian imports from Greece decreased by 54 percent and amounted to $229.4 million. During the visit, Russian President openly expressed his country’s interest in taking part in the potential privatization of Greek rail assets and the port of Thessaloniki, a major gateway into the Balkans. Greece and Russia have made float the idea of Athens participating in a pipeline project that would bring Russian gas into Europe via Greece. «The issue of our energy resources being carried through southern corridors to the countries of the European Union is still on the agenda», Putin noted.

He said that Russia could also help Greece upgrade its transport infrastructure and made a reference to Russian Railways (RZD) which is interested in buying the country's railway operator TRAINOSE and its second biggest port in Thessaloniki. RZD is one of eight companies shortlisted for the acquisition of a 67 percent stake in the port where final bids are expected at the end of September. Russian Rosneft and Greek Hellenic Petroleum SA signed a contract on oil supplies from Russia to Greece. The agreement will bring cooperation with the Greek partners to a new level as it lays the basis for direct contracts with Hellenic Petroleum on supplies of oil and oil products to Greek refineries. The signing ceremony was held after the talks between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and in their presence.

Vladimir Putin said he hopes that Russian-Greek relations will not depend on time-serving trends in domestic politics and the projects that were agreed on during the visit will be implemented. «I’m pleased to say that in Russia and Greece the question of developing interstate ties has acquired a supra-political nature and is independent of current political trends», Putin said at a meeting with the leader of the country’s largest oppositional conservative party New Democracy Kyriakos Mitsotakis.

The President and Prime Minister exchanged views on current international and regional issues. Mr Putin's visit comes as the EU leaders are to discuss next month whether to renew sanctions on Russia's banking, defense, and energy sectors that expire in July. British Prime Minister David Cameron said on May 27 that the leaders of the Group of Seven (G7) economic powers had agreed that sanctions imposed against Russia must be extended next month. Nevertheless, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier on May 27 floated the possibility of a «step-by-step» reduction of EU sanctions against Russia «if there is progress on implementing peace accords on Ukraine».

Russia has imposed countersanctions against the West, including a ban on agricultural produce. Russia said on May 27 it plans to extend its embargo on Western food products by a year and a half. The extension of the embargo, which was due to expire in three months, appears intended to ratchet up pressure on Brussels.

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras criticized what he branded a vicious circle of sanctions imposed on Russia. «We have repeatedly said that the vicious circle of militarization, of Cold War rhetoric and of sanctions is not productive. The solution is dialogue», he emphasized.

The Russian President used the occasion to warn the US and NATO to stop setting missile systems near Russia, and added that Moscow feels threatened and is ready to retaliate. Some elements of the US missile shield are being installed in Poland and Romania.

«If yesterday people in these areas of Romania simply didn’t know what it means to be in the crosshairs, then today we will be forced to carry out certain measures to ensure our security», he said, adding that the same will happen in Poland. «We won’t take any action until we see rockets in areas that neighbor us», he stressed.

The Russian President noted that the argument that the project was needed to defend against Iran makes no sense, since an international deal has been reached to curb its nuclear program.

The Greek Premier said, the close ties his country holds with Russia can help promote relations between Russia and the EU, as well as Russia and NATO.

«Everyone recognizes that there cannot exist a future for the European continent with the European Union and Russia at loggerheads», Mr Tsipras said.

«Improving relations with Russia on multiple levels is a strategic choice», Tsipras noted. «Of course … when the disagreements exceed our powers, we can act a positive influence within the EU and NATO».

Particular emphasis during the talks was given to cultural and humanitarian cooperation, including in the context of the reciprocal Year of Greece and Year of Russia, which started in January 2016, and the celebrations in 2016 of 1,000 years of Russian presence on the holy Mount Athos. The Russian President visited the autonomous Orthodox Christian monastic community of Mount Athos, joined by the head of Russia's Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow.

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The importance of the visit should be viewed in a broader context. In early May Japan’s Prime Minister visited Russia – a breakthrough in the Russia-G7 relations. The Japanese leader consulted Moscow on major international issues before he hosted the G7 summit on Kashiko Island (Ise-Shima) on May 26-27.

The Greek government held talks with Russia at the top level before the EU summit in late June.

Actually, Russia is always consulted before major meetings of world leaders take place. Despite the restrictive measures imposed under the pressure of the United States, G7 member-states maintain an intensive dialogue with Moscow. The same way, despite the EU leadership’s position, the bloc’s member countries continue to maintain close relations with Russia discussing prospective cooperation in the hope that the restrictive measures will be lifted soon as an obstacle artificially created to serve nobody’s interests. Greece has stated plainly it opposes the sanctions.

There is no doubt that the most important thing here was the actions of the Greek Prime Minister himself, who took the risk of appealing to the people once again for their support. It will be remembered that Greece’s former government was never in favour of the promised referendum on relations with the European Union, having yielded to pressure from external creditors. Tsipras took the risk of putting his mandate and the mandate of the coalition on the line, and his determination played a crucial role in the outcome of the elections. The victory on 20 September is, first and foremost, the victory of Tsipras personally.

A second important factor that influenced the election results was the inability of the opposition, represented by the New Democracy party, to offer voters a clear alternative to Syriza’s policies. One could say that the opposition has now ended up in the same unenviable role that the EU leaders have been ascribing to Tsipras himself for a couple of years. During his premiership, the leader of the radical left coalition not only managed to win the referendum, but also sign a series of agreements with Greece’s external creditors that to some extent are mindful of his promises. In this situation, the rise to power of right-wing forces would only have broken down the cooperation that has been established and disrupted the implementation of adopted legislation, which is to say that it would have plunged Greece into yet another crisis. This is something that the country can no longer afford.

It should be remembered that Tsipras still has to sort through the debris left behind by his predecessors. After all, the 86 billion euros outlined in his agreement with creditors will, for the most part, be used to pay off the debts of previous Greek governments.

With Tsipras’ victory, Greece has been given another chance to find the political stability it has waited so long for, a political stability that will also apply to its relations with other countries. This was highlighted in Russian President Vladimir Putin’s congratulatory message to the ‘new-old’ Greek Prime Minister, in which Putin expressed his «hope for the continuation of a constructive dialogue and active collaboration to further strengthen the mutually-beneficial cooperation between Russia and Greece in a variety of areas, including trade and economic, energy and humanitarian».

The general situation in the European Union, which has changed dramatically in the two months since the Greek referendum, has played an important role in the formation of the new political situation in Greece. The influx of refugees and migrants to EU countries is increasingly revealing the weakness of the European Union by aggravating old knots of interstate and intrastate conflicts and tying new ones. While Berlin, Paris and the European Commission were able to try and talk to Greece in the language of ultimatums back in July, they can no longer afford to do so today.

In the 1980s, the American political analyst Stephen Walt introduced the ‘balance of threat’ theory into the academic and political world. His theory argues that when working out and implementing their foreign policies, small countries are guided more by external threats than by the positions of more powerful neighbours. In other words, the creation of an alliance against an external threat is a determining factor with regard to bilateral relations even with a more powerful, influential and long-established partner. In today’s highly uncertain, rapidly changing configuration of power in Europe, this statement is true not just for small countries – Greece, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary – but also for Germany, which has come up against challenges capable of surpassing the capabilities of even this powerful nation at any moment.

Today, the European Union as a supranational organisation and its leading member states have essentially found themselves held hostage by the countries of Central and European Europe, through which the transit routes of hundreds and thousands of refugees pass and onto which ‘Old Europe’ is pushing the most acute contradictions caused by the migration crisis. It is unsurprising, therefore, that Greek society, exhausted by its political crises and social and economic problems, saw an opportunity in the current situation to assert its rights and interests more loudly. All that the Greek people can do now is hope that Captain Tsipras will be able to steer his ship between all the reefs in their voyage on the stormy European sea, a voyage that is risky, but promises certain benefits.