Conte calls for ending EU sanctions against Russia “as soon as possible”

Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte called for
ending EU sanctions against the Russian government and improving trade between
the two nations despite current sanctions during his Oct. 24 visit to Moscow.
The current conflict between Russia and the West has continued for too long,
Conte said. “Sanctions are not a goal for Italy. They are an instrument that
needs to be overcome as soon as possible,” he said, as reported by Radio Free
Europe/Radio Liberty.”

The Italian government is the only one in Europe that
has included removing sanctions against Russia as part of its coalition
agreement, and therefore part of its law, Dmytro Kuleba, Ukraine’s permanent
representative to the Council of Europe, told the 5 Kanal television network on
Oct. 24. 

Zenon Zawada: Indeed
Italy has emerged as Russia’s most powerful ally in the West. And the Italians
have fulfilled the Kremlin’s goals with its strategy in this conflict, which is
for Europeans to grow exhausted and to seek renewed trade to compensate
economic losses. However, the sanctions will remain in place for as long as
France and Germany rule the roost. Populist-nationalist parties are gaining
support in these countries, but not at a pace that will change EU policies for
the next four years. Nationalist forces are likely to make gains in the German
Bundestag elections in 2021 and French elections in 2022, but the gains are not
likely to be enough to affect EU policy on Russia.

The next EU parliamentary elections will be held in
May 2019. We expect gains made by populist-nationalists, but again, not enough
to shift EU foreign policy in Russia’s favor. For Russia to gain favorable and
influential majorities in EU legislatures, it will have to keep lobbying for at
least another five years, but probably a decade.

Having resisted Western pressure for four years
now, Russian President Putin seems to have decided that he is ready for a
decade-long struggle against the Western establishment, which has come as a
surprise. But when he has Western support for projects such has the Nord Stream
2 natural gas pipeline bypassing Ukraine and Poland, he has a fighting chance
to achieve his struggle for control of the Ukrainian territory.