(by Massimiliano D'Elia) The Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte is in Moscow these days, in a very "hot" moment for both countries. Italy is probably looking for a significant bank in light of two really important "issues" for the health and life of the yellow-green government. The rejection by the EU Commission of the economic maneuver and the Palermo summit on November 12 and 13 for the discussion of the Libya dossier.
Russia, for its part, is under pressure both for the economic sanctions in place and for the latest found by Donald Trump, namely to cancel the INF treaty which since 1987 has banned the use of intermediate-range ballistic missiles. Moscow thinks of Italy as it is considered a strategic country for its geographical position both from the rest of Europe and from the United States.
The Italian delegation is also composed of an adequate number of representatives of various Italian companies, about 20. 15 commercial agreements in question worth 1,5 billion euros. Also two big names among Italian companies, Pirelli, represented by Marco Tronchetti Provera and Eni, with CEO Claudio Descalzi.
We will talk about bilateral cooperation but also about Syria and Libya. The hope is that Putin will be able to dissolve the reservation on participation in the Palermo conference on November 12-13. It would be a success as at that point the level of participation of the other bystanders would rise. Russia is also very close to General Kalifa Haftar, notoriously opposed to the Italian line and who would very gladly boycott the Palermo summit in favor of national elections by 10 December, according to the "unwritten" agreements of Paris, with al Sarraj, under directed by Emmanuel Macron.
Having Moscow's support at the Palermo summit would also mean having the consent and possible participation of Haftar, the lord of Cyrenaica. Liba area, where migrants transit and where there are many Italian interests with Eni.
The question of the rejection of the economic maneuver by the EU Commission and the next interruption of the Quantitative Easing by the ECB president Mario Draghi, are another thorn of the Italian government, under pressure from the daily variation in the spread value, increasingly tending on the upside, conditioned by the moods of politics.
The aired hypothesis of Russian aid on the Italian public debt (the Russian sovereign fund is currently worth 70 billion dollars), could be a temporary way out for the government, but a blank bill for the future. The Russian requests could become, from time to time, more and more "pressing" and "dangerous" for the Italian position, historically pro-Atlantic.