Russian President Putin (left) and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi (right) prefer to bring their families into the friendship (photo)
Photo: Dmitry Azarov
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// Silvio Berlusconi came to support Vladimir Putin
Yesterday, Prime Minister of Italy Silvio Berlusconi came to visit Vladimir Putin, who is spending his vacation in Sochi. According to established tradition, the Russian President will receive a powerful political support from his long-time friend. Also, following the same tradition, Berlusconi would receive profitable proposals that would benefit Italian business.
Last Friend
Silvio Berlusconi is famous as one of the trustiest friends of Vladimir Putin. The Russian president already spent time in prime minister’s villa on the island of Sardinia. So, Berlusconi’s visit to the Russian president’s vacation spot is a friendly response. However, experts think that the meeting will go way beyond discussions about the weather and water temperature.
For Putin, the opportunity to talk closely with Berlusconi is very important. The problem is the Italian prime minister is only one of Putin’s traditional partners on whose support the Russian president can count. The closest friend of the Russian leader, German Counselor Gerhard Schroeder is too busy with election campaign; French President Jacques Chirac is not that personally close to Putin, besides he prefers to make friends not only with Putin but with Putin and Schroeder together; Putin’s relationship with Tony Blair and George Bush got a bit spoiled recently. Thus, the only acceptable way for the Kremlin to get something done in the West is to use Berlusconi as the channel.
One of the main problems that Russia would have to face soon with the European Union, including Italy, is Iran. In the beginning of September, there will be a session of the Atomic Energy Agency. It is already clear that the U.S. in this session will demand to send the Iranian case to the Security Council of the U.N. to introduce sanctions against Tehran. Moscow is trying to prevent the sanctions. However, if Russia will try to use its veto right as a permanent member of the Security Council that would mean almost open confrontation with the United States. For that reason, the main hope for Moscow is to get support from European countries that are traditionally more loyal to Iran than the United States.
Putin also needs to find out from Berlusconi how Europe sees the processes that are happening in the post-Soviet space. It looks like the Kremlin didn’t quite decide how to behave if some “color democracies” from CIS and NATO start getting too close. Italy, from the one side, is an active member of NATO, however Berlusconi, from the other side, is a good friend of Putin and with whom else, beside the Italian prime minister, can the Russian president discuss this subject.
Finally, Putin can test on his guest the agenda that Moscow worked out for the coming Russian chairmanship of the G-8. Russia would like to bring to public discussion such subjects as international energy security, the fight with drug threats, terrorism and non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. Besides, Moscow intends to bring notes into the traditional subject of aid to the poorest countries in the world—to move the accent to the CIS problems and most of all the Caucus and Central Asia regions. Putin already brought up this subject more than once, but so far he could not find any positive response. The West is not burning with desire to increase Russian influence in the post-Soviet space for its own money. However, Berlusconi, who is famous for his eccentric speeches could become a supporter of Russian initiatives.
Profitable Visit
Silvio Berlusconi has extensive experience supporting his Russian friend on an international level. His most bold speech was probably given in a press conference in Rome during the EU summit in 2003. In that time, the Italian prime minister interrupted Putin who was going to answer questions of French journalists about Yukos and Chechnya and started to answer himself. He said that “almost 100 percent of the Russian population supports actions that were taken against the Yukos management.” He also passionately tried to persuade journalists that “President Putin differentiates between executive and legislative powers.” In the conclusion of his fiery speech, he exclaimed, “Now about Chechnya, there was a referendum there. The vast majority of people who voted decided to belong to the Russian federation. Chechnya has the opportunity to choose its own president. Moreover, the EU decided itself not to send observers for these elections. Let’s face the facts!”
It is illustrative that not long before this speech Gasprom signed an unprecedented contract with Italian company ENI about the re-export of Russian gas. And as it was always known, Berlusconi never separates business and politics himself. His political career came from his ability to run a business. For that reason, he is taking care of business interests – his and his partners—in all international trips he takes. For instance, during one of his previous visits to Russia, he especially took Putin to Lipetsk region into the Russian-Italian industrial district, where there was an opening of the new plant producing Italian washing machines Indesit. Now Berlusconi most likely, in exchange for Putin’s external political initiatives support, would be lobbying for the creation of similar “industrial districts” in the Leningrad region, St. Petersburg, Tartaria, Mordovia, Chuvashia, Moscow, Vladimir, Novosibirsk, Voronezh and Sverdlovsk regions. Moreover, Rome would really like Moscow to give creating Italian industrial districts the status of free economic zones.
Besides, the traditional subject of Putin and Berlusconi’s conversations is the provision of special preferences and conditions for Italian companies by the Russian government. Berlusconi will not lose the opportunity to help his compatriots this time around.
Foggy Future
One more subject that worries Berlusconi is the issue of enlarging the Security Council of the U.N. which most likely will be on the agenda of the coming General Assembly. Italy perfectly understands that it has virtually no chances to get into the Security Council. For that reason, Rome is against increasing the number of permanent members. Russia also doesn’t like the idea of sharing its privileged status in the UN and for that Moscow’s position could be close to the Italian stance.
Berlusconi in the nearest time would have to give a lot of attention to the battles in the UN: the speculation on this issue, which is traditionally touching national pride, can bring some extra political points to the Italian prime minister and these points are important for Berlusconi because parliamentary elections are coming soon and his supporters do not have that many chances for success.
If the coming elections would be won by the Christian Democrats headed by former head of the Euro Commission Romano Prodi, it will be a big blow for Putin—he would lose his trusted friend who is always ready to say words on behalf of the Russian president. For that reason, the leaders of the two countries need to talk extensively while Berlusconi is still in power.
Mikhail Zygar
All the Article in Russian as of Aug. 29, 2005
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