Before meeting Russian President Medvedev in Moscow, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi spent some time with his counterpart and friend Vladimir Putin in Sochi. Vladimir Putin personally met with Berlusconi at the airport and, taking to the wheel of his Mercedes, drove him to the hotel Radisson Lazurnaya, where the Prime Ministers held talks and witnessed the signing of several documents related to the implementation of the South Stream project.
Silvio Berlusconi was irresistible: flashing his snow-white smile, he looked devilishly smart, which could not but attract attention. Apparently, he was thriving on the threat of divorce. He had planned to visit Russia in early April, but an earthquake in Italy, which claimed many lives, forced him to postpone the visit.
"We are aware that it was a great tragedy and that you had to attend to internal problems," Vladimir Putin remarked.
Berlusconi thanked him for the support and assistance and told him about the clean-up efforts in the aftermath of the earthquake and what still remained to be done in bringing relief to people.
After the talks the Prime Ministers watched Russia's Gazprom and Italy's ENI sign the Second Supplement to the Memorandum of Understanding on Further Steps to Implement the South Stream Project to be launched on December 31, 2015. Gazprom head, Alexei Miller, did not rule out that the project could be completed ahead of schedule. Earlier, Gazprom signed agreements with the gas companies from Bulgaria, Serbia and Greece to create joint ventures to build the South Stream pipeline through their territories.
"This expands the possibilities of Russian hydrocarbon supplies to European consumers; we are talking about additional volumes with the participation of our Italian partners," Vladimir Putin said commenting on the signing of the document, adding that it contributed to "European energy security".
"We will take an important step towards energy security, Mr Berlusconi echoed his words. I think that we can consider ourselves a lucky country to receive energy resources from a country which is truly a friendly country and which has never broken its obligations."
"Does the Nabucco project have a future?" Izvestia asked the Russian Prime Minister.
"One should bear in mind two main components. The first and most important is ensuring supplies. Second: economic feasibility. Our project has both," Mr Putin said, adding with some scepticism that "before investing billions of dollars in a pipeline and burying it in the ground one has to know where the gas for this pipeline will come from."
By Natalya Antipova
