Matteo Salvini, Italy's deputy prime minister and minister of transport and infrastructure, said Italy could resume buying natural gas from Russia once the conflict in Ukraine comes to an end. He made the comment in remarks to TASS, Russia's leading state-run news agency.
Salvini said Italy's return to Russian gas would depend on finding a diplomatic solution, one built around helping the negotiating process rather than supplying weapons.
Who Is Matteo Salvini
Salvini leads Italy's Lega party, a right-wing populist party, and serves as deputy prime minister in the government of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. He has repeatedly called for dialogue with Moscow, even as the European Union has kept sanctions on Russia in place over the war in Ukraine.
Meloni's government has been one of Kyiv's staunchest supporters in Europe, providing military and financial aid since the invasion, a stance that has at times put it at odds with Salvini's calls for renewed dialogue with Moscow.
Italy, like other European Union members, sharply cut its imports of Russian gas after Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, and has since relied on alternative suppliers, including liquefied natural gas. The European Union first imposed sanctions on Russia's energy sector that year and has renewed and expanded them several times since.
Oil Price Forecast From Moscow
Separately, Kirill Dmitriev, head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, Russia's sovereign wealth fund, earlier forecast that oil prices would climb from 105 dollars to 150 dollars a barrel or higher.
Dmitriev linked the expected rise to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a threat to the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait, and attempts by the US Congress to pass new sanctions against Russia. The Strait of Hormuz, between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula, and the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait, off the coast of Yemen, are both key shipping routes for global oil.
The Russian Direct Investment Fund was established in 2011 to make investments in the Russian economy alongside international partners, and Dmitriev has become one of the more prominent voices in Moscow's economic commentary on the fallout from the war.
