Putin to hold talks with Greek leadership, oppositional party leader in Athens

MOSCOW, May 26. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin on May 27 in Athens will hold talks with the Greek leadership, visit a museum of the Byzantine and Christian art and meet with the leader of an oppositional party, presidential aide Yuri Ushakov told the media. Upon arrival in Athens on Friday Putin will meet with President Prokopis Pavlopoulos and then hold narrow and expanded format talks with Prime Minister Aleksis Tsipras. The Russian delegation includes Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Culture Minister Vladimir Medinsky, Energy Minister Aleksandr Novak, Gazprom CEO Aleksey Miller, head of the Rosneft oil major Igor Sechin and others. The talks will end with the signing of a number of joint documents, including an inter-governmental declaration on partnership and a statement for the press. Ushakov said the talks would focus on measures to lend more dynamics to the activities of the mixed inter-governmental commission for cooperation. Russia’s Transport Minister Maksim Sokolov is the commission’s Russian co-chair. "The ninth session of the commission was held in Sochi in November 2015. This time the date of another, ninth session will be coordinated," Ushakov said. Ushakov said Putin and Tsipras would jointly open an "exhibition of one masterpiece" - display of Andrey Rublev’s icon Ascension of Jesus, from the collection of the State Tretyakov Gallery at the Museum of Byzantine and Christian Art. "After than our president will have an informal contact with the leader of the oppositional New Democracy party," Ushakov said. Read more