Thursday night on Telegram channel Dmitry Medvedev, a ‘meme’ appeared. You could see the face of the British Prime Minister who resigned in it. Boris Johnsonlater italian mario draghi, which follows the same path as its UK counterpart, followed by a big question mark in the next box. This is how Medvedev, who is vice-president of the Security Council of Russia today, reacted like this, about an hour after the transalpine prime minister announced his intention to resign as chairman of the Italian Executive Committee. Enough provocation. conflict with Rome Moscow became poisonous and notorious.
Mario Draghi took steps to distance Italy from Russia. But it earned him one of the first major confrontations with the military. 5 Star Movement (M5E), the formation that can now overthrow its government and opposes arms deliveries to Ukraine. Still, Draghi defended these shipments to Kiev and also initiated a strategy to seek alternatives to Italy’s dependence on Russian gas. An example is the agreements to increase gas from Algeria, to which the Italian leader will travel next Monday. In this way, Draghi reduced dependence on Moscow from 40% to 25%, this figure is still problematic if Moscow decides to cut off the supply to Italy completely.
“In Moscow they are celebrating now because Draghi has resigned. Autocracies: 1. Democracies: 0,” said Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio. “Medvedev raised a toast, he was happy because they gave it to him. The head of Draghi (Russian President Vladimir) to Putin,” he continued. Maria Zajarova, Spokesperson of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. “Given that the Italian foreign minister has allowed himself to talk about Russia in the framework of the government crisis, I say to the Italian people that I wish for a government that is engaged in solving the problems created by its predecessors and does not serve its own interests. American interests”Zajárova told Italian agency AGI. When asked about the issue, European Foreign Ministry Spokesman Peter Stano continued that Russia is “trying to destabilize the European Union (EU) and its member states”.
bad relationships
Unusually harsh and clear words, reflecting the plight of relations between Russia and European countries due to the war in Ukraine, many of which approved sanctions against Moscow or sent weapons to support the Ukrainian army. But they are also words that have connections even in the time that has passed between the two countries. The Cold War (at that time, through the now-defunct Italian Communist Party (PCI, one of the most influential parties in Western Europe), but later, today, through contacts between different political forces (Matteo Salvini of the ultra-nationalist Union, the most influential party in Western Europe in recent years). one of the active ones). And all this added to the deep-rooted economic relationship. russian-italian, Now it has suffered from the conflict initiated by Putin in Ukraine.
An example based on Eurostat figures requested by EL PERIÓDICO: From 2012 to 2021, the total value of exports from Italy to Russia was equivalent to an average of EUR 8.2 billion per year. be this amount much higher It is lower than countries such as Spain (2.1 billion on average) and France (6.1 billion) and lower than Germany (27.4 billion). This explains the divergent economic impact of the crisis with Moscow even more than most of the damage in the case of Italy. impacted industries strategic for the country’s economy transalpine: textile industry, food industry and machinery manufacturing industry. Likewise, but conversely, Moscow also once had a large buyer in Italy, that is, before the batteries of sanctions against Russia.