RIA NOVOSTI. Russia's participation in the privatization of Greek assets, if Athens launches this program, would be advisable, VTB Bank president and management board chairman Andrei Kostin thinks.
In an interview with TV program News on Saturday the banker pointed out that during the economic forum in Saint Petersburg he spoke with a number of "leading Greek businessmen" about the participation of the Russian Federation in the privatization of Greek assets.
According to Kostin, Russian interests might be to buy Greek ports, airports, power utilities companies, and also railroad operators.
"While giving the money to Greece for no particular reason, I think that Russia, firstly, has problems of its own and, secondly, Russia is eventually not a member of any mechanism as is the EU in this regard. I think that certainly we're not going to do it," Kostin concluded.
Last week Vladimir Chizhov, the Russian Ambassador to the European Union, said in an interview with RIA Novosti that Russia is ready for economic cooperation with Greece, including within privatization of Greek infrastructure.
According to Chizhov, Russia has possibilities to deepen economic cooperation, in particular, Greece has assets to release into private hands, namely railroads and a port f facility (in Thessaloniki).
Greece lacks money to fund its external and domestic obligations, while its EU partners are demand new budget austerity measures in exchange for bailout. Greek PM Alexis Tsipras appointed a referendum on July to review proposals of European creditors and called upon the voters to reject them.
