Fear of Russian Control: Why NATO Values ??a Small Greek Port

Alexandroupolis is a hub for NATO to deliver supplies to Eastern Europe and arms to Ukraine. The Greek government wants to privatize the port. In the future, he could be controlled by a consortium that has close ties to Russia.

The small Greek port of Alexandroupolis, 15 km from the Turkish border, has been buzzing with activity for the past few weeks. The reason: the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine. Alexandroupolis in eastern Greece is of strategic importance for NATO. It is a hub of US supply for its units in Eastern Europe. In addition, from here they deliver weapons to Ukraine.

The alliance should therefore worry that the government in Athens wants to privatize the port. The bidding period ends today. The favorite is Dimitris Coupelouzos – a Greek billionaire who is said to have excellent contacts in the Kremlin.

The port is so important for NATO because road and rail connections to Bulgaria and Romania – and thus to the eastern flank – start from it. Since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, more than 3,000 US troops and hundreds of armored vehicles and tanks have been brought to the port. From there we continued by train to Romania and other Eastern European NATO member states. Greece uses the connection to bring four batteries of the air defense system ASRAD to Bulgaria.

In addition, the United States, in particular, uses this route to transport weapons and other equipment to Ukraine in just a few hours. This saves the Americans from having to cross the water. The Bosphorus is controlled by Turkey and Russian warships are in the Black Sea. Turkey is currently not the most reliable NATO partner. Turkish planes repeatedly violate Greek airspace. In addition, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is threatening to prevent Finland and Sweden from joining NATO.

Another advantage of the port: In contrast to the larger ports of Thessaloniki and Piraeus, it has a lot of free capacity. In addition, these ports are controlled by consortia that have ties to either the Russian or Chinese governments.

And that could soon be the case with Alexandroupolis as well. The Greek government wants to privatize the port and sell 67 percent of the shares. US investors are behind two of the four consortia that are still in the running.

The third consortium is led by Ivan Savvidis, a Greek-Russian oligarch. For many years he was a member of the Russian parliament for the Kremlin party “United Russia”. He owns the Greek football club PAOK Thessaloniki. He became known beyond the borders of Greece when he stormed onto the pitch with a pistol in his belt after a disallowed goal in the top game against AEK Athens in 2018 and approached the referee.

However, Dimitris Copelouzos is the favourite. The Greek billionaire is active in the fields of energy, infrastructure, real estate development and media. He also sat in the Greek Parliament. According to The Economist, Copelouzos has longstanding business ties to Russia. For example, he holds half the shares in a joint venture with Russian energy giant Gazprom, which supplies much of the gas consumed in Greece.

Copelouzos is one of the “few Greek businessmen who have business ties with Russia,” the British newspaper quotes the think tank Center for the Study of Democracy as saying. For at least four decades he has been a middleman for Russian interests in Greece with his holding company. When Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Greece in 2001, he also met Copelouzos.

Recently, however, the billionaire has also done business with the United States. One of his companies renovated the US Embassy in Athens. His holding is also the largest investor in the planned LNG terminal to be built off the port of Alexandroupolis. From there, from 2023 onwards, other countries in south-eastern Europe will also be supplied with gas supplied from the USA.

According to media reports, the US government has made it clear to the Greek side that it would welcome a US consortium operating the port in the future. The concern is that otherwise Russia will get a good insight into the activities of the port or slow down the expansion.

That would be very inconvenient for the US military to have a base there. The government in Moscow is likely to keep a close eye on who gets the bid. In a conversation with his counterpart Nikos Dendias, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said: “Of course we have noticed in which direction the Americans can use this port.”