Greece’s rapid transformation into a regional gateway for U.S. liquefied natural gas (LNG) is drawing sharp criticism from the country’s communist opposition, which warns that the new energy architecture ties the country more deeply to dangerous geopolitical rivalries rather than enhancing “security” and “stability” in Southeast Europe.
An opinion column published in the Rizospastis, the Communist Party of Greece’s (KKE) newspaper, argues that the narrative of safety around U.S.–Greek energy agreements is “a bad joke” in a region already aflame with imperialist competition. The intervention comes days after Athens hosted the Transatlantic Energy Cooperation Conference (P‑TEC), attended by senior U.S. officials and energy executives. There, American representatives and Greek government figures promoted Greece’s role as an “entry gate” for U.S. LNG into Europe, framing it as a pillar of regional stability and a tool for peace in Ukraine. One argument heard at the meeting, echoed in *Rizospastis*’ report, was that flooding the European market with U.S. LNG would hasten an end to the war by inflicting irreversible damage on Russia’s energy‑dependent economy. The communist daily dismisses attempts to present Washington as a “peace‑maker” and U.S. gas as an “olive branch.”
At the heart of the dispute lies the so‑called Vertical Gas Corridor, a north–south route running through Greece, Bulgaria and Romania that is designed to move non‑Russian gas into Central and Eastern Europe. Initially outlined in 2014 under the Samaras government, amid the U.S.–EU‑backed political upheaval in Ukraine, the project was later advanced by the SYRIZA–ANEL coalition and then by the current New Democracy administration. Speaking at P‑TEC, Bulgartransgaz chief executive Vlad Malinov underlined the scale of the shift under way, noting that “five to six years ago, the whole region was almost fully dependent on Russian gas.”
A flagship element of this corridor is the new floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU) off Alexandroupolis in northern Greece. Investments in the terminal began while Bulgaria was still “full” of Russian gas, *Rizospastis* notes, but gained momentum after the decision to proceed at the end of 2021. Construction started in May 2022, just months after Russia’s full‑scale invasion of Ukraine and shortly before the unexplained explosions that crippled the Nord Stream pipelines in September 2022, effectively shutting down one of the main routes for Russian gas to the EU.
The newspaper places these regional developments within a broader U.S. strategy to secure “energy dominance” in the global LNG market. Citing figures from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, it recalls that the United States became a net exporter of natural gas in 2017, after the shale gas boom and the conversion of terminals such as Sabine Pass in Louisiana from import to export use. By 2022, with additional facilities like Cove Point (Maryland), Corpus Christi and Freeport (Texas), Cameron (Louisiana), Elba Island (Georgia) and Calcasieu Pass (Louisiana) online, U.S. LNG export capacity had reached roughly 75–80 million tonnes annually, making the country the world’s largest LNG exporter.
According to Rizospastis, this U.S. “energy supremacy” is not a neutral market development but “a structural element” of the struggle for primacy in the global imperialist system, aimed foremost at severing NATO‑aligned Europe from Russian energy and reshaping ties between Russia and China. The paper argues that the process is being enforced “through fire and iron” – wars, sanctions and escalating confrontations both between rival power blocs and within the Euro‑Atlantic alliance itself.
While the Greek government and business groups hail LNG projects as a guarantee of supply security, new revenues and geopolitical upgrading, the KKE‑aligned daily warns that the deals signed with Washington are more likely to become “the starting point of new and bigger conflicts,” further dragging Greece and its people into perilous confrontations. The only real safeguard for peace, it concludes, lies in opposing imperialist plans, disengaging the country from wars and ultimately overturning the capitalist system that fuels them.
Photo: Gemini AI