“We bought oil and, especially, gas from Russia in eras that were much more tense than now,” Scaroni told Reuters on the sidelines of a business conference. “Lightheartedly, I say: ‘We were buying oil and gas during the Cold War, today, with this slightly chilly war I see no reason to stop doing so.’”
Relations between Russia and the West have been strained by the war in Georgia, a former Soviet republic which is a transit route for oil and gas.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Thursday played down talk of a new Cold War. “Today there are no ideological contradictions, there is no basis for a Cold War,” he said. Eni and Russia’s Gazprom have a strategic partnership that includes an energy assets swap yet to be finalized. (Reuters)
