Russian oligarch grabs Greek ports

Athens Greece is speeding up the privatization of its ports. As early as 2015, the government at the time sold part of the company operating the port of Piraeus, the largest in the country, to the Chinese state-owned company Cosco. The Chinese now hold 67 percent of the Piraeus Port Authority.

Three years later came the privatization of Greece’s second largest port, Thessaloniki, and now the port of northwestern Greece, Igoumenitsa. The sales are conditions imposed by international lenders as a result of the Greek debt crisis.

Now it’s the turn of the ports of Heraklion in Crete and Volos in central Greece. Interested parties include a Greek-Russian billionaire with close ties to Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin. That could cause political conflict.