Italy attempted to sign trade deals with Russia shortly before Putin invaded Ukraine
Senior Italian and Russian officials met to discuss potential corporate investments worth hundreds of millions of euros just over a week before Moscow invaded Ukraine. The under-the-table trade deals that were supposed to remain secret were revealed by the prestigious financial newspaper Bloomberg in an interesting investigation that is embarrassing the Italian government internationally. I report an interesting article of Vladimir Volcic publish on the Italian catholic newspaper “Il Faro di Roma”.
Senior Italian and Russian officials met to discuss potential corporate investments worth hundreds of millions of euros just over a week before Moscow invaded Ukraine. Talks in Moscow included a possible partnership between Genoa-based Ansaldo Energia and Russian giant NordEnergoGroup.
Other important Italian firms are involved. Among them, ENEL, which asked the Russian financial giant Sberbank to finance the ten-year investment plan in favor of Slovenské Elektrárne, a state-owned company in the Slovak Republic that operates in the fossil, nuclear and hydroelectric energy sectors. Since July 2016, 66% of Slovenské Elektrárne has been controlled by Slovak Power Holding BV, a 50:50 joint venture founded by the Czech industrial group Energetický Průmyslový Holding and ENEL.
On the Italian government front, a joint investment plan was signed for a value of over 300 million euros in favor of the Russian company Rusal and the Sardinian company Eurallumina (controlled by Rusal) which envisages the construction of a low-impact bauxite refinery environment managed by Eurallumina in Siberia. Project blocked in December 2021 due to the heavy economic repercussions it would have in Italy.
To start the investments in Siberia, Rusal has activated a relocation project which provides for the definitive closure of the Eurallumina plant in Sulcis, which has been shut down since March 2009. A factory that transforms buaxite into alumina, the raw material from which aluminum is produced considered by experts to be one of the largest in Europe. About 1,000 jobs are at risk despite the opposition of Italian trade unions with serious repercussions on employment and the economy of Sardinia.
The secret agreements were signed in the greatest discretion at the same time when the Italian government, forced to respect the easements provided by the Atlantic Pact of 1949, aligned itself with the American foreign policy against Russia which provides for heavy sanctions and even exclusion. of Russian banks from the international SWIFT system, which allows cross-border financial transactions.
Italy has agreed to actively participate in the 40,000-strong NATO emergency response force that will be deployed in the Baltic Republics, Poland and Romania to prevent the hypothetical (and unlikely) Russian invasion of Europe.
The Italian army will participate with 2,400 soldiers taken by the Alpini and the Folgore, (who trained in the last weeks with the 173 ^ Airborne Brigade of the US Army stationed in Vicenza, already partially present in the Eastern countries) and 8 Eurofightes fighters 2000 of the Air Force, 4 of them screened in Romania.
The Italian army is also participating in the US-NATO maxi-exercises in Eastern Europe of the Baltic scheduled from 28 February to 14 March and in the Dynami Manta 2022 the simulation of the defense of the Mediterranean against Russia, which began on 21 February and will end on 4 March. Two exercises that are intended to be a show of strength aimed at Putin.
The news of the trade agreements between Italy and Russia was not revealed by the Italian media, for a long time entangled in a logic of servility to the financial potentates who govern Italy, of which very little is known about their opaque politics. Media for the most part are now busy spreading American propaganda and portraying Putin as a mad dictator and the Russians as bloodthirsty monsters.
The under-the-table trade deals that were supposed to remain secret were revealed by the prestigious financial newspaper Bloomberg in an interesting investigation that is embarrassing the Italian government internationally.
The secret meetings began on February 14 following the meeting in January between a representation of Italian entrepreneurs, including the three companies mentioned above, and President Vladimir Putin. At the January video conference meeting (reported at the time by Euronews and RaiNews) was present the Executive Director of ENEL Francesco Storace who is the brother of Giorgio Starace, Italian ambassador to Moscow … The secret meetings held from 14 to 22 February they were instead entrusted to unspecified Italian mediators as ENEL, Ansaldo and Rusal — Eurallumina considered it wise not to expose themselves directly by sending their representatives.
Even if the news is not spreading among the Italian public opinion enchanted by the US propaganda that includes apocalyptic scenarios and the third world war, it still remains a source of great embarrassment for the Italian government that participates in the summit of EU foreign ministers that is taking place today. , where other sa will be examined economic actions against Russia and the expulsion of Russian banks from the SWIFT international payment system.
The secret agreements of Italian companies with the “enemy” risk compromising the credibility of the Italian Premier Draghi who just yesterday phoned President Volodimir Zelensky to express Italy’s solidarity and closeness in the face of the attack by the Russian Federation. During the phone call, Draghi promised that Italy will provide Ukraine with the assistance it needs to defend itself.
Premier Draghi, contacted by Bloomberg, declared himself unaware of these recent meetings between Italian entrepreneurs and Putin, while the management of Ansaldo and ENEL refused to respond to the requests for clarification made by the financial newspaper Bloomberg.
The newspaper’s article highlights the double game tactics and under-the-table agreements that have become a constant feature of Italian foreign policy that has escaped the control of Parliament and citizens for the past 6 years. Just think of Italy’s opaque and contradictory policy towards the civil war in Ethiopia and the attempt to rehabilitate the monstrous dictatorship of Isaias Afwerki in Eritrea.
What are the reasons that push important Italian firms to do business with the “Russian enemy” while the Italian government condemns him, at least in words?
The reason is unique and simple to understand. The sanctions and the tug-of-war with Moscow imposed on Europe by the United States damage their business.
Ansaldo is trying to sell gas turbines to Moscow to fill Russia’s limited production capacity in exchange for strong tax cuts and favorable commercial conditions for Ansaldo’s investments in Russia. Ansaldo is one of the main Italian companies that intend to invest in Russia despite the country being considered an “enemy” by the Atlantic Pact. Among the reasons for this political choice is the commercial orientation imposed by the Chinese multinational Shanghai Electric which holds important Ansaldo shares together with Cassa Depositi e Prestiti SPA.
Unlike the Italian firms, the Chinese ones scrupulously observe the Beijing guidelines and behave accordingly. China is opposing any sanctions against Russia and is discreetly but effectively supporting Putin in his war in Ukraine and studying economic countermoves to limit the damage of Western sanctions.
According to Bloomberg, the turbines that Ansaldo is trying to sell to Russia are part of a commercial triangulation involving the American firm Norden Group controlled by the financial powers DFPG Investments Inc and TownSquare Capital LLC. The turbines would be destined for Crimea, annexed to Russia in 2014. The plan is to officially sell them to Russia which will then move them to Crimea. Commercial triangulations are the daily bread of Italian companies to circumvent sanctions and bans imposed on countries particularly sensitive to Italian investments.
Since 2017, ENEL has strengthened its investments in Russia through the creation of new production plants with a high level of localization for the development of wind energy in the territory of the Russian Federation in which Enel participates in a consortium with the German joint company. -Spanish Siemens Gamesa, winning an international tender for the construction of two wind farms in the regions of Mrmansk and Rostov with a total capacity of 291 MW.
It is hardly credible that Premier Draghi was unaware of the secret talks between the major Italian industries and the Russian government. A declaration perhaps obligatory in order not to irritate the American partner to whom Italy (a nation defeated in the Second World War) is tied hand and foot through the Atlantic Pact of 1949, the terms of which still remain a state secret that cannot be disclosed to the common citizen.
However, it seems clear that Italian finance and business do not look favorably on the American crusade against Russia, let alone new sanctions and the attempt to oust Russian banks from the international financial system. Italy is the seventh most important investor and the 14th importer of goods in Russia. The tightening of sanctions would severely damage the Italian economy while the Russian economy has the relief valve of China and the BRICS countries.
A truth honestly revealed by the former president of the Council and the European Commission, Romano Prodi on the pages of Corriere della Sera. “Both sanctions in general and any possible sanctions could penalize our country and Germany. They would cost very little to the United States, which forcefully demands them but does not have the same trade relations with Russia as we do. If the situation continues like this for a few more days the recovery will stop or at least seriously slow down. This war will weigh on the recovery of the world iale. It is also possible an acceleration of inflation and a more immediate reaction by central banks, which were already planning a gradual tightening, “said Prodi in an interview with Corriere della Sera.
According to Prodi, the existing and eventual sanctions would catastrophically hit Italy by placing limits and major financial difficulties on the export of goods, technologies and investments. It would also jeopardize Italian energy security if gas and energy supplies from Russia were to become impossible to maintain.
In the interview with Corriere della Sera, Prodi indirectly speaks out for Italian companies that silently oppose American foreign policy and enter into commercial agreements protected by the utmost discretion and self-censorship that the Italian media have been imposing for years on all the uncomfortable news that they concern Italian policies abroad.
“Nothing is more precious than democratic values but I just say, as an old professor of industrial economics, what would happen to Italy with the sanctions. For us, the losses would not only be temporary, for the duration of the sanctions, because our Russian customers would replace us with Chinese products which would then be very difficult to undermine. If you look at the data, the intensification of trade relations between Russia and China is already impressive today “.
Original Article: “La guerra in Ucraina ha gelato molte aziende italiane inpegnate fattivamente in Russia. Ma non ha sorpreso il complesso militare industriale di casa nostra” @FarodiRoma
