Did Europe just fold?
Moments ago Bloomberg blasted a headline which has to be validated by other members of the European Commission as well as Merkel and the other Germans (and may well be refuted, considering this is Europe), which said that:
- COMMISSION TO PROPOSE 6 MONTH EXTENSION FOR GREECE – SOURCES.
So did Greece just win the first round of its stand off with Brussels? It remains to be confirmed, but congratulations to Greece if indeed it caused Merkel and the ECB to fold.
But what caused it? Well, it wasn’t the laying out of the Greek “ask“, which as we noted earlier, was the following:
…
No, that’s not it. What emerged as the biggest point of leverage overnight was the following threat reported hours ago by Reuters, citing the Greek defense minister Kammenos, who essentially threatened to go to Russia and/or China if Europe decline to cooperate. Per Reuters:
Greek Defence Minister Panos Kammenos said that if Greece failed to get a new debt agreement with the euro zone, it could always look elsewhere for help.
“What we want is a deal. But if there is no deal – hopefully (there will be) – and if we see that Germany remains rigid and wants to blow apart Europe, then we have the obligation to go to Plan B. Plan B is to get funding from another source,” he told Greek television show that ran in to early Tuesday. “It could the United States at best, it could be Russia, it could be China or other countries,” he said.
Of course, it clearly wouldn’t be the US which would never act against the interest of its European “allies”, so the real threat was very clear: converting Greece from a member of the Eurozone to an expansion of the Eurasian economic zone and a landing pad for both Russia and China into Europe. This is also a possible outcome we hinted at two weeks ago in “Putin’s Unexpected Victory: Europe Furious That Greece Is Now A Russian Sanctions Veto.”
Full article: After Greece Warns It May Get Funds From Russia Or China, Europe Said To Propose 6 Month Extension (Zero Hedge)
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