Alexandroupoli There wasn’t much going on in the port of Alexandroupoli on Wednesday. Apart from a few fishing boats and sailing yachts, only the ferry “Adamantios Korais” was at the quay. But now the war in Ukraine is making itself felt here too.
The “Hartland Point” is expected in Alexandroupoli on Thursday. The Ro-Ro Transporter, coming from Southampton, brings military vehicles and US Army soldiers to Northern Greece. On Saturday, the 200 meter long car transporter “Liberty Passion” will follow with more American war equipment. Vehicles and equipment are transported from Alexandroupoli to Bulgaria and Romania by rail.
The Russian war of aggression against Ukraine highlights the strategic importance of the northern Greek port. Alexandroupoli plays “a key role for stability in the region,” said Erika Olson, undersecretary at the US State Department, on February 23 during a visit to northern Greece. A few hours later, the Russian invasion of Ukraine began.
Now the port is about to be privatized. The state wants to part with 67 percent of the shares in the port company Alexandroupolis Port Authority SA (OLA). Four bidders are in the running. One application makes you sit up and take notice: The port company of Thessaloniki (ThPA) also wants to take over Alexandroupoli. At first glance, that sounds like synergy, but it is politically explosive.
Top jobs of the day
Find the best jobs now and
be notified by email.
>> Read here: Europe in crisis mode: A continent is arming itself
Because almost 72 percent of the shares in ThPA are held by Belterra Investments Ltd. The company belongs to the business empire of Russian oligarch Ivan Savvidis. Forbes magazine puts Savvidis at a net worth of $1.6 billion. That’s enough for 80th place in the ranking of the richest Russians. The 63-year-old is said to have good connections to Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin.
As far as is known, Savvidis, who also has a Greek passport, is not yet on any sanctions list. Nevertheless, the matter is politically explosive.
The 63-year-old is said to have good connections to Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin.
(Photo: Reuters)
Greece’s largest port of Piraeus has been under Chinese control since the state-owned company Cosco took a majority stake in the port company OLP in 2016. All the more attention is now being paid in Washington to who will be awarded the contract in Alexandroupoli.
The port also serves as a storage facility for liquid gas
The USA still has big plans for the port. The US Ambassador to Greece, Geoffrey Pyatt, has not visited any other provincial city as often as Alexandroupoli in recent years. At the beginning of December 2021, the US armed forces brought around 150 attack helicopters, several hundred tanks and other military equipment to Alexandroupoli as part of Operation Atlantic Resolve. “The steadily increasing military activities show the growing strategic role of the port for Greece, the United States and the region,” said US Ambassador Pyatt on the occasion of the maneuvers.
>> Read here: New competition for “Putin’s pipeline”: Southeastern Europe wants to become less dependent on Russian gas.
He is therefore pleased that there are “two strong American bidders” for the port. These are Quintana Infrastructure & Development from Houston, Texas, and the consortium International Port Investments Alexandroupolis, in which the US asset manager Black Summit Financial Group, the EFA Group and the Greek construction group GEK Terna are involved. The fourth bidder is a Greek-French group of companies. Interested parties should submit binding offers by May 5th. The sale could be a done deal by the end of the year.
In Moscow, too, privatization is being followed closely. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov already complained in an interview with the Greek TV channel “Antenna” that the USA was bringing military equipment to Eastern Europe and Ukraine on a large scale via Alexandroupoli.
But Alexandroupoli is not only important to the Americans as a hub for military operations in the Balkans and the Black Sea region. A Greek-Bulgarian consortium is currently building two terminals there for the storage and regasification of liquefied natural gas (LNG). Alexandroupoli will thus “play an increasingly important role in Europe’s energy diversification,” says US Ambassador Pyatt. Greece already gets around half of its LNG from the USA.
Savvidis also owns the football club Paok Thessaloniki
The Americans are all the more alarmed that Savvidis is now reaching for another Greek port after entering Thessaloniki. The oligarch submitted his application in October 2020. But against the background of the Russian war against Ukraine, it appears in a new light.
Savvidis was born in Georgia in 1959 as the son of Pontic Greeks. After studying economics at the University of Rostov, he rose to become director of the Rostow tobacco factory in 1993, later took over the company in a management buyout and founded the investment company Agrokom. From 2003 to 2011, Savvidis was a member of the Duma for Putin’s United Russia party.
Its activities in Greece started in 2012 with the purchase of football club Paok Thessaloniki. In 2013 he got Greek citizenship. He now owns the luxury hotel Makedonia Palace in Thessaloniki, the resort of Porto Carras on the Chalkidiki peninsula and the Sekap tobacco factory.
In 2017, Savvidis, together with Deutsche Invest Equity Partners, acquired a majority stake in Thessaloniki Port Authority as part of a privatization. In the same year he bought the Greek daily newspaper “Ethnos” and the business newspaper “Imerisia”. Its media portfolio also includes the television station “Open TV”. The channel is currently notable for its particularly Russia-friendly reporting.
In early March, the Russian embassy in Athens accused the Greek media of “disinformation” about what was happening in Ukraine and “anti-Russian propaganda”. On Twitter, the embassy linked a program from “Open TV” and recommended that the Greeks tune in to the Savvidis channel if they wanted to see “anything other than lying propaganda about the situation in Ukraine”.
With this intervention by the Russian embassy, the long-standing question in Greece as to what role Savvidis plays and what his actual mission might be has gained new topicality.
More: Destination Europe: Another setback for the tourism industry this summer.