Russia: Moscow wants to cooperate with a united Europe - Putin

Russian President Vladimir Putin said he wanted to make clear that Moscow was not going to take advantage of some of the European Union’s internal issues “in order to solve the question of improving relations with the European Union as a whole,” during a joint press conference with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras in Moscow, Wednesday.

SOT, Vladimir Putin, Russian President (in Russian): “I want to reassure you that we are not going to take advantage of some of the European Union’s internal issues in order to solve the question of improving relations with the European Union as a whole in such a fragmentary way. We stand for working with a whole, united Europe in a transparent and trustworthy way in the framework of our long-term strategies.”

SOT, Vladimir Putin, Russian President (in Russian): “We are not trying to talk anyone into anything or pushing anybody towards anything. We are simply open for joint and positive work aimed at reaching positive results in the interests of our people and our economies.”

SOT, Vladimir Putin, Russian President (in Russian): “If the Greek government, led by Mr. Tsipras, considers it possible to restore and strengthen cooperation with Russia, we are welcoming this and of course we are ready to take steps to meet in all the spheres [of cooperation], which we have discussed today.”
¤W/S Joint press conference of Putin and Tsipras [CUTAWAY]
¤SOT, Vladimir Putin, Russian President (in Russian): “For some reason the visit [to Moscow] of the head of the Greek government is considered as some extraordinary event, [but] I don’t know why. Greece is also embarrassed by debts, also leg-shackled in political terms and its sovereignty is so limited that it can’t conduct an independent foreign policy. I think that’s not right and all the actions of the Greek prime minister tell the opposite.”