Greece: hanging tough for better eurozone deal?

Alexis Tsipra's Syriza government continues to aspire to a lesser debt burden and a ditching of policies forced on Athens for the bailout

It's easy to see why Angela Merkel and Franiois Hollande were so keen to get an agreement with Vladimir Putin over Ukraine. The eurozone is not really in good enough shape to cope with the aftershocks of one crisis let alone two.

So, Germany and France wanted at least a temporary respite from the problems on Europe's eastern borders before turning to the more pressing issue of Greece.