Greece’s Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has been invited to visit Moscow on December 12 and meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin, the Nea Selida newspaper reported on Sunday.

According to Nea Selida, the visit will be "an attempt to heal up the wounds" inflicted on the bilateral relations by the expulsion of diplomats this summer. The newspaper says the visit was originally planned for an earlier date but was "frozen."

The focus during the visit will be made on bilateral relations and possibilities for cooperation in such areas as trade, shipping, tourism and energy, as well as on regional problems, the situation in Syria, the Greek-Turkish relations and the Cypriot problem, the newspaper wrote.

The visit will be preceded by a meeting of the Russian-Greek commission on economic, industrial and research cooperation due to take place on December 5, it added.

Tsipras said in early September he had received an invitation to visit Russia throughout 2018. On October 4, a source in Greek diplomatic circles told TASS the visit might be organized in the first half of December.

In July, Greece expelled two Russian diplomats and denied entry to two more. According to the Kathemirini newspaper, Athens accused these people of meddling with Greece’s domestic affairs and of acting to undermine its national security. The Russian foreign ministry summoned Greek Ambassador to Moscow Andreas Friganas to hand in a note of tit-for-tat measures.