Medvedev Agrees On Raft of Deals in Italy

By Maria Antonova

The St. Petersburg Times

Published: December 8, 2009 (Issue # 1533)

MOSCOW — President Dmitry Medvedev made his third trip to Italy this year on Thursday, discussing energy and politics with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

The set of 19 deals resulting from the meeting in Rome looks similar to the package resulting from Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s recent visit to France. The documents include agreements on cooperation in culture, transportation, education, alternative energy, agriculture and space.

Tire maker Pirelli and Russian Technologies put some finishing touches on their pending agreement to jointly build a tire-producing factory in the Samara region, home of Russian auto giant AvtoVAZ. The deal established the 50-50 joint venture that will start building the plant in the second half of 2010 and “acquire an already existing factory, which is currently being identified” among several potentials.

The venture’s goal is to produce at least 4 million tires annually within five years. Total investment “will amount to about 300 million euros [$453 million],” the companies said in a joint statement.

Among other deals, Italy’s Eni, Gazprom and Electricite de France signed a memorandum of understanding to bring EDF into the South Stream gas pipeline as a shareholder.

The three companies will sign a final agreement in the next three months, Gazprom spokesman Sergei Kupriyanov said. EDF will join the project with a stake of “at least 10 percent and maybe more” in the first half of 2010, Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller said, without elaborating.

Berlusconi said at the news conference that South Stream would not compete with the Nabucco pipeline. “I guarantee that all of Europe — the Balkans, and Italy — will continue taking gas from Siberia,” he said.

Aeroflot signed a memorandum of understanding with Alitalia agreeing to increase the number of flights between the countries. “We are also interested in developing African destinations, which is what we will do through Italy, while [Alitalia] is asking to increase flights through Russia to Southeast Asia,” Transportation Minister Igor Levitin said.

Sibur, Russia’s largest petrochemicals company, signed a four-way memorandum of understanding to develop a chemical facility in Tobolsk, in the Tyumen region, that will annually produce up to 500,000 tons of polypropylene, which is used in a number of industries.

Vneshekonombank will provide 1.4 billion euros out of the 2 billion euros needed to build the factory and a complex to capture associated gas under a guarantee from Italian insurance company Sacci, while Italian construction firm Maire Tecnimont will provide engineering services, VEB said in a statement.

The polypropylene facility is expected to become Europe’s biggest and produce 40 percent of Russia’s needs for the product, VEB chief Vladimir Dmitriyev said.