Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer’s meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin—the first for an EU head of government in over six weeks—resulted in an arrangement whereby Austria would be able to pay Russia for its gas in euros, and not in rubles. Even though Austria supports EU sanctions against Russia, Austria is that rare bird, a non-NATO European country, trying to maintain a neutral status. Austria never joined in on the weaponization of Ukraine. Since Austria imports 80% of its gas from Russia, Putin certainly could have exerted leverage, but evidently a certain modicum of cooperation was preserved.
In contrast, Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio took the position that Russia’s arrangement for “hostile countries” to pay for natural gas in rubles was simply not possible. In an interview with Italy’s Radio 24, he explained: “We cannot pay in rubles. Russia introduced a double billing scheme from euro to rubles, this is impossible as it would mean bypassing sanctions against the [Russian] central bank.” According to RT, Di Maio assured listeners that the Italian government is currently working on new channels for supplies of natural gas. The Prime Minister Mario Draghi had already visited Algeria, and was planning to negotiate on extra supplies from Angola and Congo in the near future. Then he appeared to undermine his own assurance: “We need to diversify the supplies, we haven’t done it yet, but we have to.” It should be a warning to Italians to know that it could have been worse; at least the foreign minister recognized that they needed to find more energy.
