'Greece can never pay its debt' – Jim Rogers
With Greece said to be seeking financial help from Moscow, the country would still "never ever" be able to pay off its debt to the IMF, American businessman and investor Jim Rogers told RT, adding that Athens is only trying to delay it.
Greek's Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, who will be in Moscow this week to meet Russia's President Vladimir Putin, "is desperate for money - and Russia is a wonderful place to get money and play politics," Rogers said.
The prime minister has been widely criticized for his upcoming Russian visit by the Western mainstream media, being blamed for "flirting with Moscow" ahead of its promised $450 million tranche to the IMF, which Greece has said it will pay on Thursday as part of its €324-billion ($354 billion) debt.
"Greece can never pay its debt! Never ever! It's physically impossible," Rogers said in an interview with RT's 'In the Now' host Anissa Naouai. "But they can try to delay it," he added, saying that's what Wednesday’s Moscow visit is all about. Tsipras will try "to delay it as long as they can and then maybe they can get away with it for a while."
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Meanwhile, Greece is trying to "show a good face," the investor said, explaining that if the country manages to pay off at least some money - or shows efforts to do so, it could stay afloat.
At the same time, Russia is a perfect place for Greece's recently-elected government to "play politics," Rogers explained, saying that "it's the perfect ploy to play Russia off against the EU and against the West because of what's going on in Ukraine."
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If that plan fails, Greece might turn to China looking for the money it needs, Roger’s told RT, saying that "China's got more money than anybody... than all of us put together." With such China-led financial projects as the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), the country could soon break the dollar’s domination, Rogers said: "This is terrible for America, it's great for the rest of the world. We need something to compete with the USD."
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