Is Greek PM Putin’s “Useful Idiot” as Guardian says?

Columnist Natalie Nougayrede points to various reasons as to why Tsipras would want to have Russian President Vladimir Putin as an ally but states that the “strongest glue that binds” the two men may be anti-German sentiment.

The article questions if the Greek government is going to “sell itself off to Russia” and concludes that this would not happen even if Athens wanted to because Moscow doesn’t “have the goods” as a result of the fact that Russia is going into recession making a Russian bailout for Greece unlikely.

Nougayrede writes that Putin has more to gain from Tsipras’ visit than Russia as it will be a demonstration of EU divisions and a case to showcase pro-Kremlin networks in the EU. She points out that hugging with Putin is “not the best way to show that you are ‘a proud member of the Euorpean Union’.” Nor would a visit convince anyone in Europe to show solidarity to Greece.