Russia, ambassador to Italy: “Salvini-business meeting indicates a return to realism”

Milan, Sept. 15 (LaPresse) – The meeting in Milan between Italian entrepreneurs and Matteo Salvini testifies to “the beginning of a return of the Italian establishment to realism, pragmatism and common sense”. This is what Russian Ambassador to Italy Alexey Paramonov says regarding the meeting held in Milan with Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini and representatives of Italian companies that continue to operate in Russia. “We see that an increasingly large part of public opinion in Western European countries, including Italy, is questioning whether the current anti-Russian policy of their respective governments actually serves the interests of the states involved and their populations,” Paramonov writes on Facebook. “Increasingly often, the same question arises in Italian business circles. From direct experience, entrepreneurs see how much their opportunities have been reduced since the European Union, de facto, declared a hybrid war on Russia, of which anti-Russian sanctions are one of the main instruments. Their implementation,” he stresses, “has led to the almost total cessation of energy cooperation between Russia and Italy, causing serious damage to bilateral trade, whose volume has fallen by almost tenfold. It does not appear possible, within Italy’s energy balance, to replace the volumes of energy resources at affordable prices that previously came from Russia. Nor is it possible to quickly and effectively identify new outlets for traditional Italian exports.”