© Sputnik/ Sergey Guneev
According to the president, Moscow has started to protect its interests in a determined way, but is not acting aggressively.
"We have begun to more persistently and consistently defend our interests," he stated. "We want relations based on equality with all members of the international community."
Moscow's relations with the US, the EU and NATO deteriorated since 2014 amid the Ukrainian crisis and Russia's reunification with Crimea. The West accused Russia of participating in the armed conflict in Ukraine and began boosting its military presence in Europe.
Moscow has repeatedly denied the accusations, expressing concern over NATO's expansion and increased military presence in Eastern Europe near Russia's western borders.
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An emergency summit of the eurozone’s 19 leaders will be held in Brussels to discuss the crisis on Monday. If Greece refuses to agree reforms and a tighter budget, the central bank will come under intense pressure to stop pumping money into its banks.
Alexis Tsipras, the Greek prime minister, warned that a Greek exit from the eurozone – one of the potential outcomes of the crisis – could trigger the single currency’s collapse.
‘The famous Grexit cannot be an option either for the Greeks or the European Union,’ he said in an Austrian newspaper interview.
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Russia and Greece have signed a deal to create a joint enterprise for construction of the Turkish Stream pipeline across Greek territory, Russian Energy Minister Aleksandr Novak said. The pipeline will have a capacity of 47 billion cubic meters a year.
The construction costs are about €2 billion and the parties will sign a roadmap Friday, Novak told RIA at the St. Petersburg Economic Forum.
The Greek extension of the Turkish Stream project is called the South European pipeline in the memorandum signed on Friday, Novak said, adding that the construction will start in 2016 and be completed by 2019. ....continued
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