Greek Crisis: Scraping the bottom of the vodka bottle

From the look of the Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, schmoozing on the sidelines of the International Economic Forum in St.Petersburg, you wouldn’t have guessed how precarious the situation is for his country, with the possibility of a messy default and ensuing bankruptcy inching ever closer. Then again Tsipras’ rhetoric was always somehow detached with the harsh realities of the country’s systemic dysfunction of political patronage, a bloated public sector and an unsustainable pension system among other ingrained pathologies. There was also a meeting with Russian president Putin though once again, on the pressing issue of securing alternative to EU/ECB/IMF sources of funding, he left practically empty handed.