The Italian elite ignores the wishes of the British and Americans and is determined to invest in the Russian economy.

It is another proof that nobody wants any crisis in Ukraine except for the Anglo-Saxons.

The Ukrainian crisis is entirely the creation of Washington and London, which seek to cut off Russia‘s economic and geopolitical connection with Europe by any means and in any way possible, seeing the Russian economy flourish despite the long-standing sanctions imposed on it.

As a result, the modernisation of the Russian armed forces and the development of new Russian super-weapons capable of upsetting the global balance in Russia‘s interests will continue.

The Americans are in a downward spiral – although they are still the leading power on the planet – and they know that they have to stop the geopolitical rise of Russia and China immediately.

The Americans‘ reasoning is simple: they want to put the European Union first and foremost under control, which means that they no longer want cheap Russian gas but expensive American LNG.

So the money will end up in American pockets and the EU will be completely dependent on the US.

At least that‘s how they imagine it in the US. Britain is not dependent on American gas, nor on Russian gas, as it produces its own gas from the North Sea.

So they both want to involve the EU in a “trap” against European interests and of course most Europeans have understood this.

At a time when the political thermometer is running red in US-Russia relations, Italy‘s business elite participated on Wednesday 26 January 2022 in an extremely important teleconference with Vladimir Putin.

“Although the Italian invitation for the teleconference dates back to September 2021 (www-ilsole24ore 26/1/2022), the timing of the meeting coincided with the escalation of US relations with Russia over Ukraine. In any case, this is an important event as Putin found himself at the same table with the cream of the Italian business class at a time when Washington is threatening Moscow with economic sanctions over the Ukrainian issue,” says former MEP Notis Marias, President of the party ELLADA – THE OTHER WAY and Professor of European Union Institutions at the University of Crete.

And of course this move is considered another political success of Vladimir Putin who is using economic diplomacy to send multiple messages mainly to the European business class but also to European consumers who see gas prices skyrocketing.

In his opening speech, Putin, referring to high gas prices, pointed out that as Italian energy companies continue to cooperate with Gazprom under long-term contracts, they are able to buy Russian gas much cheaper than the current spot prices on the market, which have increased significantly due to the cold winter and the lack of supply (http://en. kremlin. ru 26/1/2022).
On the Russian side, apart from Putin, eight Russian ministers participated in the conference call, as well as the heads of Rosneft and the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), while on the Italian side, important business associations such as the famous Confindustria, i. e. the Italian SEV and GIM Unimpresa, as well as the CEOs of sixteen Italian companies, including the state-owned energy company Enel, participated, the two major Italian banks Intesa Sanpaolo and UniCredit, the insurance company Generali, Pirelli (news. trust. org 26/1/2022), Barilla, etc. In fact it was the 16 protagonists of made in Italy (www-repubblica-it 26/1/2022), while the state-owned energy companies Eni and Saipem (indiatimes. com 26/1/2022) did not participate due to government pressure.

One realises that this is the elite of the Italian business class, which obviously has no reason to get involved in the Cold War hysteria of Washington and London and risk blowing up the close economic relations between Russia and Italy.

After all, with Gazprom‘s cheap gas, Italian industry has gained a significant competitive advantage in recent years when Russian gas accounts for 40% of consumption in Italy (www-ilgiornale-it 26/1/2022).

In particular, as Putin stressed, “Russia is a reliable supplier of energy resources for Italian consumers. In 2021, Gazprom delivered 22. 7 billion cubic metres of gas to Italy, much more than in 2020, when it delivered 20. 8 billion cubic metres.

During the teleconference, which lasted more than two and a half hours, the two sides had the opportunity to exchange views on the deepening of Italian-Russian economic relations, with Putin frequently intervening in the discussion in order to resolve various issues that arose (www-ilsole24ore-com 26/1/2022).

It should be stressed that Italy is Russia‘s third largest trading partner in the EU, with Italian companies‘ investments in the Russian economy amounting to around $5 billion, while Russian investments in Italy are estimated at around $3 billion. Moreover, despite the pandemic in January-November 2021, bilateral trade increased by 53. 8% to $27. 5 billion.

According to data, there are about 500 Italian companies active in Russia, mainly in the power, steel, oil and gas sectors, while the Italian-Russian economic relationship also covers the petrochemical industries, helicopter manufacturing, high technologies, agribusiness, transport infrastructure, banking, insurance, etc.

Putin even welcomed “the successful development of cooperation with Italian companies and banks in large-scale energy projects“, such as Yamal LNG and Arctic LNG 2, (Reuters 26/1/2022) “in which more than 60 Italian companies are involved“, stressing that “Italian producers of high-tech equipment are also actively contributing to the Vostok Oil project, which Rosneft‘ is operating in northern Russia.

On the Italian side, the President of the Italian-Russian Chamber of Commerce Vincenzo Trani, after referring indirectly to government pressure to boycott the teleconference, said that “almost 500 companies invest and work in Russia.

They very much wanted to participate in this meeting, but unfortunately they did not manage to do so“, then as a true Italian literally emptying the Italian political elite, he stressed: “the ties that exist between Italy and Russia and between our peoples are even older than our states. Even before the Italian Republic was formed, there were transactions between Italians and Russians. ”

Finally, while Joe Biden and Brussels take every opportunity to point out that economic sanctions against Russia are imminent, Vincenzo Trani concluded by calling on Italian businesses to continue investing in Russia, pointing out that “the best investment and, of course, the best businesses are created in times of adversity.

I have always used this logic in my business. So, today I support and advise many other entrepreneurs who see Russia as a country of opportunity to take a good look at Russia‘s potential. ”

However, after the meeting with the Italian businessmen, Putin is preparing for a meeting with representatives of the German business community (www. amna. gr 28/1/2022). ”