ATHENS – Alternate Foreign Minister Militiadis Varvitsiotis met with Russian Ambassador Andrey Maslov in Athens on Thursday.

The two men discussed the upcoming visit to Athens of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, to occur by the end of the year, and further expansion of collaboration between Greece and Russia. Both men, the minister’s office said, expressed the belief that Lavrov’s visit will serve to ‘restart’ relations between the two countries.

Ambassador Maslov also discussed the prospects of investments in Greece, such as in the tourism industry or in the country’s privatization program, and referred to a Russian investment of 500 million euros in a hotel in Elounda, Crete.

Varvitsiotis mentioned the difficulties Greek farm exports face in Russia, and raised the issue of tariffs on Greek fur products, calling on Russia to resolve it.