Eurozone crisis: EU's siege mentality looks likely to squeeze Greece

Athens's capitulation to Brussels in the Greece debt crisis is only a matter of time once Alexis Tsipras and Syriza realise the rules of the game have changed

Once again, Greece seems to have slipped the financial noose. By drawing on its holdings in an International Monetary Fund reserve account, it was able to repay a750m (544m) - ironically to the IMF itself - just as the payment was falling due.

This brinkmanship is no accident. Since coming to power in January, the Greek government, led by the prime minister, Alexis Tsipras's Syriza party, has believed that the threat of default - and thus of a financial crisis that might break up the euro -provides negotiating leverage to offset Greece's lack of economic and political power. Months later, Tsipras and his finance minister, Yanis Varoufakis, an academic expert in game theory, still seem committed to this view, despite the lack of any evidence to support it.