MOSCOW, July 6. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin has discussed solution approach to the Greek debt issue with the chief of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Monday.
"A telephone conversation [of the head of Russia] with the managing director of the IMF Christine Lagarde just took place, President Putin was the initiator of the conversation," Peskov said. "The issues of cooperation between Russia and the IMF within the framework of the referendum that was held the day before in Greece were discussed," he said, adding that "an optimal solution to the problem of the Greek debt taking into account interests of all sides will be further searched for."
Earlier on Monday Putin discussed in a telephone conversation with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras the results of Sunday’s referendum in Greece on the terms of providing financial aid by international creditors to Athens.
The Kremlin press service said the talks were held on the initiative of Athens and the leaders of the two countries also discussed "some issues of further development of Russian-Greek cooperation." "Vladimir Putin expressed support for the Greek people in overcoming the hardships that the country now faces," the Kremlin said.
A referendum that took place in Greece on Sunday, July 5, was held to determine whether people support or reject terms of international creditors put forward to settle the country’s bailout crisis. The results showed that 61.31% of voters rejected terms of creditors, while 38.69% spoke in favor of supporting them.
Since 2010, when Greece’s sovereign debt started to grow, the European Union and International Monetary Fund (IMF) gave Athens almost €250 billion in loans. Though some part of the debt was written off in 2012, Greece currently owes more than 315 billion euros, or 175% of its GDP, to international creditors. The indicator significantly exceeds the EU standards according to which sovereign debt should not be more than 60% of the country’s GDP.