First Mr Putin met and talked with Spiros Latsis, president of Latsis Group, and then Dimitrios Kopelouzos, chairman of Kopelouzos Group.
While greeting Mr Latsis, President Putin said he was glad to meet the president of a large oil company, which had a long-standing interest in Russia and worked closely with LUKoil, one of Russia’s leading oil companies.
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Valentina Matviyenko and LUKoil president Vagit Alekperov attended the meeting.
The second person the Russian President talked with, Mr Kopelouzos, head of Kopelouzos Group, stressed that Greece was the only Balkan country in the EU. If Russian energy sources were combined with Greece’s potential, he said, it would make it possible to invest in the construction of power plants in that region and supply electric power to all Balkan countries.
Mr Putin noted that the Greek company and Russia’s Gazprom had a good basis for cooperation, and their joint work could contribute substantially to two-way cooperation.
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Valentina Matviyenko and Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller took part in the second meeting.