(Bloomberg) — Top Italian executives went ahead with a conference call with President Vladimir Putin on investment prospects in Russia Wednesday, ignoring an appeal from their own government to scrub the event as tensions rise over Ukraine.
“I’m very glad to have the chance to meet with you,” Putin said in televised comments opening the video conference. “We can say with satisfaction that our countries have managed to maintain cooperation on the economic track at a rather high level,” he said, with trade up 54% in the first 11 months of last year.
The government led by Prime Minister Mario Draghi had appealed to the executives not to participate due to the current international situation, an Italian official said, asking not to be named discussing sensitive deliberations. The forum, organized by the Italo-Russian Chamber of Commerce, is a private initiative and neither the Italian ambassador to Moscow nor other government representatives were scheduled to attend, the official said.
Draghi is among the western leaders who’ve called Putin in recent weeks to warn him against military action in Ukraine, threatening severe economic sanctions. The Kremlin says it has no plans to invade its neighbor, but has assembled more than 100,000 troops near the border. The U.S. has taken the lead on efforts to build European support for sanctions, but major countries such as Italy have at times seemed more cautious.
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Italy also has strong historical links with Russia dating back to the era when it had one of western Europe’s most vibrant communist parties. Since taking office, Draghi has sought to reaffirm Italy’s commitment to the European Union and its alliance with the U.S., after years of tepid support from populist governments.
Still, Draghi has warned that the EU has only limited options for deterring Russian advances toward Ukraine.
“Do we have missiles, ships, cannons, an army? At the moment no,” Draghi said last month. “We Europeans, at best, have some economic deterrents,” adding that “the EU needs to keep engaging with President Putin.”
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Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said three of the planned participants dropped out of the call as a result of illness or other issues.
Top executives including Assicurazioni Generali SpA Chairman Gabriele Galateri di Genola, Enel SpA Chief Executive Officer Francesco Starace and Pirelli & C. SpA Executive Vice Chairman and CEO Marco Tronchetti Provera are among those participating. UniCredit SpA CEO Andrea Orcel was also scheduled to participate. Oil giant Eni SpA and gas network operator Snam SpA declined.
Italy owns stakes in Eni, Enel and Snam, and Eni has deep natural gas ties to Moscow, with some 30% of its supplies sourced from Russia. The oil major has partnered on projects with Gazprom PJSC for over 50 years and the two companies are involved in the Blue Stream pipeline which delivers gas to Turkey.
In his opening comments, Putin noted that Russia supplied 22.7 billion cubic meters of gas to Italy last year at prices well below the surging levels at times seen on the spot market, due to long-term supply contracts.
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