The agenda of Putin’s visit was highly dense and diverse. The Russian president used the opportunity to hold his first meeting with Pope Benedict XVI. Their first contact was facilitated by the language they both spoke fluently – the talks were conducted in the pope’s native German. The two leaders discussed mainly secular issues during their Vatican meeting, especially the situations in various “hot spots,” primarily in Iraq and Afghanistan, and how Russia and Vatican can cooperate on important international issues. Along with that, Vladimir Putin brought Benedict XVI greetings from Russian Orthodox Patriarch Alexy II and the two leaders discussed relations between the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church.
Although acknowledging that the Russian president who represents temporal power has no authority to handle any issues between the two branches of Christianity, Italian media still emphasized that his Vatican visit could give a fresh impetus to the process of easing tensions between the two churches. A number of Western analysts believe that Putin had supported the idea of the pontiff’s visit to Russia even back when John Paul II held the post. However, the idea had not developed because of certain differences of principle between the Russian Orthodox and the Roman Catholic churches.
Still, the dialog between the two churches has become slightly more constructive lately. In 2006, the pope received Metropolitan Kirill, head of the Moscow Patriarchy’s External Relations department, in Vatican. It was then interpreted by many as a sign of the two churches’ relations becoming less strained.
After the visit to Vatican, the Russian president held extensive talks with Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi. That meeting was more down-to-earth, as the two leaders touched upon many aspects of bilateral relations and Russia-EU ties. It is no secret that Russia’s relations with European institutions have been strained of late; EU leaders are often critical of Vladimir Putin’s domestic and foreign policies, and his position on the energy security issue. Moscow, too, has questions to ask of the European nations, which do not even have a consolidated stance on key aspects of their relations with Russia. Still, not all European nations are willing to unconditionally support the U.S. plan for the European part of its missile-defense “shield.”
Italy is one of those nations. Incidentally, it is also a country which is building constructive and trustful relations with Russia in many spheres. Even though certain analysts had predicted that Premier Silvio Berlusconi’s resignation would affect the development of the two countries’ relations, their forecasts haven’t held up. Romano Prodi acknowledged Putin’s devotion to Russia and his efforts to uphold its dignity, in an interview shortly before the Russian leader’s visit. The Italian premier said he could find common ground with Putin on any issue. Russia, in turn, counts on Italy’s support in forging a successful dialog with the EU as a whole.
The Russian delegation included Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, presidential aides Sergei Prikhodko and Sergei Yastrzhembsky, ministers Alexei Kudrin, Vladimir Ustinov, Andrein Fursenko and Viktor Khristenko, the governors of the Lipetsk and Sverdlovsk Regions (constituent areas of the Russian Federation), heads of Rosoboroneksport (Russia’s state exporter of defense-related products), Rosatom (the federal nuclear agency), the state-owned Russian Railways company and several banks.
On the whole, judging by the outcomes of the talks and the enlarged top-level interstate consultations between the Russian president and the Italian premier in Rome and in the city of Bari in southern Italy, Putin’s visit has met both Moscow’s and Rome’s expectations. Prodi said he wanted the new Russia-EU strategic partnership talks to renew as soon as possible.
According to the joint Putin-Prodi communiqué, a new strategic partnership agreement would be an instrument making the Russia-EU relations larger in scope, more harmonious and substantial. This goal is fundamentally important for effective development and security in Europe.
Putin and Prodi emphasized the two nations’ similar positions on the world’s crises and agreed to cooperate for the resolution of those crises, especially through the UN Security Council – Russia being its permanent member, while Italy, the European representative as a rotating member in 2007-2008.
The Russian president’s visit to Italy produced nine agreements on bilateral cooperation in various spheres. One of the crucial energy deals was a memorandum of intentions between Italy's ENEL power supplier and Russia's Federal Agency for Nuclear Power to develop the energy sector and generate nuclear power. ENEL is already operating on the Russian market and is ready to invest around EUR4 billion in this country’s economy. The Russian Railways monopoly, in turn, signed a cooperation deal with Italy's electronics-making company Finmeccanica, which will supply railway equipment to Russia.
Among other accords signed are the agreements to jointly build a new medium-range jet, the Superjet-100, and a new diesel submarine. The two nations also agreed to mutually protect intellectual property in the sphere of joint defense industry projects and signed a number of cooperation protocols in culture and education. The Bari summit yielded a 122-million-euro credit agreement between Russia's Vnesheconombank and Italy's MedioBanca to finance a logistics terminal project, Ramenskoye, near Moscow. Another Russian bank, the Vneshtorgbank, signed a 200-million-euro credit agreement with MedioBanca for five years. It also secured a 100-million-euro credit deal with Italy's Intesa Sanpaolo banking group.
Along with the important summit in Bari, the two leaders’ agenda allowed for things spiritual as well. Putin and Prodi accompanied by their staff visited a church in Bari which holds the remains of St. Nicholas, a saint deeply revered by Russian Orthodox faithful. It is also symbolic that Putin’s visit was crowned by the decision of the Italian government to restore Russia’s ownership of an Orthodox church building in Bari.
