US DIPLOMATIC sources believe that Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi and Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin pursued “mutual commercial interests” when agreeing massive energy deals between Italy and Russia, according to cables released yesterday by whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks.
Furthermore, US diplomats believe that Mr Berlusconi so much admires “Putin’s macho, decisive and authoritarian governing style” that his unquestioning support for Kremlin policies has become “troubling”.
Mr Berlusconi’s close political and personal friendship with Mr Putin has long prompted speculation in Italy that the two men may well have more than national interests at heart when they sit down together. The WikiLeaks cables fuel these suspicions, with US ambassador Ronald Spogli commenting in January 2009: “Contacts in both the opposition centre-left Partito Democratico (PD) and Berlusconi’s own PDL party . . . have hinted at a more nefarious connection. They believe that Berlusconi and his cronies are profiting personally and handsomely from many of the energy deals between Italy and Russia.”
Mr Spogli also reports that his Georgian counterpart in Rome informed him of the Georgian government’s belief that “Putin has promised Berlusconi a percentage of profits from any pipelines developed by Gazprom in co-ordination with [Italian energy giant] ENI”.
Concern about the exact nature of the Putin-Berlusconi relationship allegedly prompted the US state department to urge the Rome embassy to collect intelligence on those “personal investments” which “might drive their foreign or economic policies”.
In late 2008 Mr Spogli accused Mr Berlusconi of having become a mouthpiece for Mr Putin in that “he has frequently voiced opinions and declarations that have been passed to him directly by Putin”, in the process trying “to derail US-led efforts to contain Moscow’s worst instincts”. In particular, the ambassador complains that after the tensions between Russia and Georgia over the South Ossetia region in 2008, Mr Berlusconi “began [and continues] to insist that Georgia was the aggressor”.
Mr Spogli also complains that Mr Berlusconi so much considers Italy’s Russia policy as “his personal game” that he “consistently rejects the strategic advice of his demoralised, resource-starved and increasingly irrelevant foreign ministry”.
The WikiLeaks cables recount a September 2008 meeting between US vice-president Dick Cheney and Italian foreign minister Franco Frattini during which the minister “termed himself” as “only the messenger” for Mr Berlusconi’s Russia policy.
Opposition chief whip Dario Franceschini yesterday called on Mr Berlusconi to explain himself in parliament.
Mr Berlusconi issued a statement saying: “The United States understands well that I have absolutely no [commercial] interest in any other country . . . I look after only the interests of Italy.”
On Tuesday, on the sidelines of a summit of the Organisation of Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) in Kazakhstan, US secretary of state Hillary Clinton appeared to attempt a damage-limitations exercise, saying the US had “no better friend, no one who supports American policies as consistently as prime minister Berlusconi”.
In the first cables released, Mr Berlusconi was described as “feckless”, “ineffective”, “physically and politically weak”. It was claimed that his exuberant after-hours lifestyle meant that he “does not get sufficient rest”. The revelations come at a delicate moment for the 74-year-old leader, who is due to face parliamentary confidence motionson December 14th.