Stephen Jewkes. Crispian Almer. Vladimir Soldatkin.

MILAN/MOSCOW – Russian President Vladimir Putin stressed how important it was to have ties with Italy’s energy industry. This was despite growing tensions in Ukraine.

Meeting with Italian top companies including those controlled by the state Enel (MI:), was held despite Rome’s request that business leaders not attend.

Western leaders are intensifying preparations for any Russian military attack against Ukraine. They also plan to defend Europe from disruptions in Russian energy supply.

Europe’s main issue is energy. Rising prices have led to higher electricity bills for households and businesses. Russia provides the European Union approximately a third its natural gas.

Putin stated in his opening remarks that he considered Italy one of its leading economic partners. He noted that long-term Gazprom supply agreements with Italy were a boon for the energy sector.

Moscow is particularly pleased to cooperate with banks and Italian companies on large-scale energy projects like Yamal LNG or Arctic LNG 2, he said.

Reuters was told by an organizer of the event that the meeting with 16 top executives lasted two and a half hours and went beyond expectations. It was friendly and constructive, he said.

Vincenzo Trani, head of the Italy Russia chamber of commerce (CCIR), stated that Putin never talked about Ukraine and Italian politics.

The business links between Russia and the United States were underlined by Maire Tecnimont’s participation at the meeting. It announced Wednesday that it won a contract worth 1.1 million euros from Rosneft.

VIDEO LINK

Putin was met by managers of large Italian businesses, such as power company Enel and the top banks Intesa Sanpaolo and UniCredit.

Italian CEOs, including UniCredit CEO Andrea Orcel (and Enel chief Francesco Starace), gathered at two luxurious hotels in Rome, Milan.

An official of the Italian government stated that “the meeting is a private initiative, and there is not government involvement in it.”

Dmitry Peskov (Kremlin spokesperson) said Russian ministers would also attend the meeting, along with Igor Sechin (head Rosneft), and Dmitry Konov head of Sibur, a petrochemical firm.

The CCIR, the Italian-Russian Business Committee and Marco Tronchetti Provera (head of Pirelli tyres manufacturer Pirelli) organized the video conference.

Eni, a state-controlled energy group, and Saipem were among the other companies that had been scheduled to participate. Eni stated on Tuesday that it will not be attending, and a source confirmed that Saipem has also decided to not participate.

Eni holds long-term strategic gas agreements with Russia, and Rosneft that are currently on hold. Italy gets around 40% of its natural gas from Russia.

Pictures showed that Enel CEO Starace was present at the meeting. Giorgio, the brother of Enel, is the Italian ambassador in Moscow. Enel Russia is the Russian branch of Enel, which operates renewable power projects and is the world’s largest private green energy firm.

Trani indicated that Trani mentioned the energy transition, green technology and wider industrial relations as some of the subjects discussed.

In 2020, Russia was fifth in terms of trading partners with Italy. They traded 44% more in the first 9 months of this year than they did the prior year.

Putin claimed that Russia had around 500 Italian-owned companies operating in energy, steel and banking. These firms invested approximately $5 billion in Russia’s economy.