Samaras is Barroso's puppet says Tsipras

Mr Tsipras made the comment from Moscow where he is on an important party mission. The leader of SYRIZA castigated EU leaders for wanting subjugated leaderships in Greece and the Ukraine that don't represent their people.

The leader of SYRIZA Alexis Tsipras is in Moscow for animportant official visit. The leader of the Greek opposition and European Left candidate for president of the European Commission Alexis Tsipras is in Moscow on an official visit. Moscow has come under fire due to the Ukraine crisis and the US and EU have already imposed sanctions.

A meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov was reportedly cancelled due to the ongoing developments in Ukraine. Even though the leader of main opposition SYRIZA will not meet with Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov after all, his visit to Moscow is not lacking in significance. The Syriza delegation in Russia will discuss the Ukrainian crisis and Moscow’s relationship with the West. Greek-Russian relations are also on the table for discussion.

Welcoming the SYRIZA delegation led by Greece's main opposition leader Alexis Tsipras at Moscow’s Federation Council, Russia's upper house of Parliament, Council Chair Valentina Matvienko on Monday said that Greece is a "strategic partner" for Russia, which is interested in developing Greek-Russian relations in various sectors and directions, at both a bilateral and multilateral level. 

Tsipras replied that the great majority of the Greek people, and SYRIZA, consider Russia to be an inseparable part of the greater Europe, from the Atlantic to the Urals, and for this reason are in favor of making "an effort to maintain the tradition of warm relations between Greece and Russia

On Tuesday, the Syriza leader has successive meetings planned with Vladimir Titov, first deputy foreign minister who has responsibility for Russian-European relations; Aleksey Pushkov, the chairman of the State Duma's foreign affairs committee; and Ivan Melnikov, vice-chairman of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation and a Duma MP.

The Syriza delegation includes Nadia Valavani MP, the party's foreign affairs representative in parliament; Yannis Dragasakis, deputy parliamentary speaker and Nikos Kotzias, professor of international relations at the University of Piraeus.