Russian Railways asks Putin permission to buy Greek transport assets - and at the same time the money for the purchase

The head of the Russian Railways Vladimir Yakunin asked President of Russia Vladimir Putin permission to participate in the privatization of Greek transport assets and the assistance of the state in financing the transaction, the Kommersant newspaper reports.

"Given the strategic significance of the proposed projects to increase the role of the Russian Federation in the European economic space, the participation of Russian Railways in the privatization of Greek transport assets is advisable with the provision of state funding," the letter of the President Vladimir Yakunin said to the head of the state dated May 26.

We are talking about a large port of Thessaloniki, the only Rosco Rosco repair company in Greece. The letter of Yakunin is at the disposal of the newspaper.

Yakunin writes to Putin that Russian Railways has already received preliminary information from the Greek ministries about the starting prices of assets. The port is estimated at 100 million euros, Trainose - at 30 million euros, and Rosco - 10 million euros.

The document reports that Russian Railways has "a unique opportunity to combine railway and port projects in Greece with already implemented infrastructure development projects in Serbia." According to Yakunin, companies from China, France and Arab states also became interested in Greek assets.

Although the head of the state monopoly counts on the state financing of transactions, the letter emphasizes that the company can create a consortium with a foreign partner to buy. As possible partners are “one of the large Greek railway companies” and France railways.

Yakunin also suggests that Greek companies can buy some other Russian state structure authorized by the government.

A source close to Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich told Kommersant that Putin had already instructed the government to consider the request of Russian Railways. Within a month, specialized ministries will prepare a report on this issue.

Recall, as the senior vice-president of Russian Railways Valery Reshetnikov stated on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum last year, Russian Railways is interested in the railways of Bulgaria and Greece "in the context of the development of the new Trans-Eurasian corridor." The railway top manager explained that it is meant plans to create a wide-rut railway to Vienna.

In addition, the newspaper notes, the head of Russian Railways, Vladimir Yakunin, does not hide the desire to make a transport and logistics company from a monopoly, and the purchase of assets in Greece just fits into this strategy.