Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is heading to Moscow tomorrow for a state visit — the highlight of which will be a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday. That's raising some concerns from the EU, since the country has a big debt repayment to make to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Thursday. Comments from one Greek minister last week suggested that the country would not be paying the IMF unless it got its latest bailout extension funds. Finance minister Yanis Varoufakis, on the other hand, now insists that Greece will make the payments. According to Bloomberg, there's no real chance of any direct Russian assistance for Greece financially, but discussion of Russian sanctions on Greek agriculture are planned. Those sanctions were a tit-for-tat reaction to EU sanctions against Russia, and if Greece arranged to be excluded somehow, it would be pretty embarrassing for Europe. Here's Greek newspaper Kathimerini: European Parliament President Martin Schulz warned the Greek premier against "alienating" the EU. In an interview with Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung on Saturday, the German politician said it would be "unacceptable if Tsipras jeopardised Europe's common policy on Russia in return for Russian help." Speaking to the same newspaper, Gunther Krichbaum, chairman of the Bundestag Committee on EU Affairs, said that if the Greek government believes it can find "salvation" in Moscow, “it is betting on the wrong horse.” And here's the Wall Street Journal: Mr. Tsipras, the 40-year-old premier who took office in January after his leftist Syriza party won elections, attacked EU sanctions on Tuesday in an interview with Russian state news agency TASS. “We don’t agree with sanctions,” Mr. Tsipras said, in comments confirmed by his office. “I believe that this is a road to nowhere.” He stopped short of saying he would veto the EU’s periodic renewal of its Russia sanctions, which requires the consent of all EU governments. Even without direct cash assistance for Greece's dwindling government funds, threatening to defrost relations with Russia and trying to block further EU sanctions could be one of the few cards left in Tsipras' hand in debt negotiations with the EU. Even the countries which are sceptical of EU sanctions against Russia aren't likely to be happy to be embarrassed by a single country, so it could work for Athens the short term. But anything that looks too much like cosying up to Russia runs the risk of souring Greece's long-term relationship with the rest of Europe.Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: A lawyer in Florida has come up with an ingenious way for drivers to evade drunken-driving checkpoints
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