ROMA (ITALPRESS) – “There are 350 Italian companies that continue to operate in Russia, despite the war and sanctions. They are heroic companies for which to be heard is important.” So in an interview with Il Sole 24 hours, the Deputy Premier and Minister of Transport, Matteo Salvini. “I have represented the Russian authorities that the Italian government is particularly attentive to their survival – he explains. These companies bring turnover in Italy operating in Russia. It is my duty as vicepremier, if they call me companies, to listen to them. There are 100 companies that have direct production in Russia and another 250 that import-export. Specifically they have problems in international transactions and payments, with customs, with exports, logistic type, transfer of capital outside the Russian Federation”.
“Ultimally – he adds – there is also the risk reported by someone to suffer Russian counter-sanctions with seizures of assets and litigation. In 2013 the Italian-Russia trade exchange was 30 billion, this year it is thought to close under 8 billion”.
“As Italy – says Salvini – we can oppose it, I have already spoken with Minister Tajani, to the request of some countries to block all visas, including tourist visas, entering Russia into the European Union. An option that would further aggravate the problems that already exist. We clearly have those who have attacked and those who have been attacked, otherwise we would not have approved all humanitarian, military and economic interventions launched so far in favour of the Ukrainian people. But we are four and a half years from the beginning of the war. It is time for diplomacy to replace weapons.”.
“We arrived at the 21st package of sanctions, which told me it needed 83 pages of legal explanations. We can at least ask Brussels for less complexity and less bureaucracy. It seems sensible to ask me if 21 sanctions packages have served to end the war,” he concludes.
– photo IPA Agency –
(ITALPRESS).
