Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras ruled out seeking aid from Russia and said yesterday he would pursue a new debt agreement with European partners, taking a milder line after a tough first week although sparring partner Germany gave no ground.

Spurning neckties, Tsipras and his pugnacious finance minister Yanis Varoufakis are touring European capitals this week in a diplomatic offensive to replace Greece’s bailout accord with the EU, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund, known as the “troika”.

An interviewer who spoke to Varoufakis in London said the finance minister had promised that debt negotiations would yield a result soon. In excerpts, Varoufakis said it was time for action to stop Greece being a “festering wound” on Europe. After a tumultuous first week during which the new left-leaning government made clear it intends to keep campaign promises to ditch the tough austerity conditions imposed under its existing bailout, the emphasis this week appears to be on maintaining that a new deal is still possible.

“We are in substantial negotiations with our partners in Europe and those that have lent to us. We have obligations towards them,” Tsipras said at a news conference in Cyprus during his first foreign visit as prime minister.

“Right now, there are no other thoughts on the table,” he said, when asked whether Greece would seek aid from Russia, which has suggested it could be willing to listen to a request for support from Athens.

The remarks on Russia could reassure EU partners shocked last week when the Tsipras government initially appeared to reject the bloc’s consensus on economic sanctions against Moscow. Greece eventually signed up last Thursday to extending existing sanctions against Russia for six more months.

Russia has suggested it could be willing to listen to a request for support from Athens

Greece, unable to borrow on the markets and facing pressure to extend the current support agreement when it expires on February 28, is looking for a bridging deal to provide breathing space to propose a new debt arrangement.

It has so far met a tough line from European partners, above all Germany, whose Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble told Reuters in an interview yesterday that Berlin would not accept any uni­­lateral changes to Greece’s debt programme.

“We want Greece to continue going down this successful path in the interests of Greece and the Greeks but we will not accept one-sided changes to the programme,” he said at the Reuters Euro Zone Summit.

Tsipras repeated calls already made by his finance minister Varoufakis for a mechanism of inspections by experts from the “troika” overseeing Greek finances to be dismantled and replaced by direct negotiations between Athens, the EU and IMF.

To some degree, both sides are posturing ahead of what are certain to be difficult negotiations. The Greeks appear to be searching for more sympathetic ears first, before meeting the Germans.

Varoufakis, an outspoken economist who has likened EU austerity policies to “waterboarding”, has been arriving for meetings with besuited European leaders in a rumpled black coat and untucked, open-collared shirt.

Today, Tsipras will meet Italy’s Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, a young centre-left leader thought to be among those most sympathetic to calls for leniency. He sees European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and French President Francois Hollande tomorrow. So far no date has been set for a meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, although they will meet at a European summit on February 12.