ROME: Russian President Vladimir Putin arrives in Rome Thursday for a lightning visit including talks with the pope and Italy’s populist government, which has called for an easing of sanctions despite Moscow’s ongoing crisis with the West.
Rome’s historic center is on security lockdown for the visit with 50 streets blocked to traffic and Italian media reporting that mobile phone signals could be scrambled.
Putin will be driven around in his six-meter-long armored limo by a chauffeur who has been practicing negotiating his way around the Eternal City’s narrow streets. His talks with Italian leaders should be easier.
Far-right Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini has often expressed admiration for Putin, and his coalition government advocates reviewing EU sanctions against Russia.
On the eve of the visit, Putin praised Salvini and his Lega party for having a “welcoming attitude” to Russia.
“They are pushing for a rapid abolition of the anti-Russian sanctions introduced by the US and the EU,” Putin said in an interview with Corriere della Sera.
The US and EU have progressively imposed sanctions on Russia since its annexation of Crimea in 2014 and Moscow’s involvement in the conflict in eastern Ukraine, including the shooting down of Malaysian Airlines flight MH17.
Salvini has previously visited Moscow and been pictured in pro-Putin T-shirts.
When his party won most Italian votes in May’s European elections, Salvini posted a photo of himself with a picture of Putin in the background.
“Men like him (Putin) who act in the interest of their own citizens, there should be dozens in this country,” Salvini said last year.
The Kremlin says Putin wants to discuss Russia-EU relations, the situation in Syria, Ukraine and Libya and Iran’s nuclear program.
An EU summit last month extended economic sanctions targeting whole sectors of the Russian economy, including its crucial oil and gas industry, until the end of 2019.
Italy has not vetoed the sanctions but the EU front appears less united thanks to Rome’s pro-Russian overtures.
Before talks with Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte and President Sergio Mattarella, Putin will have his third meeting with Pope Francis.
Their last encounter was in 2015 when the pope urged all parties to the conflict in Ukraine to make a “sincere effort” for peace.
The meeting lasted an unusual 50 minutes. Only audiences with former US President Barack Obama and French President Emmanuel Macron have been longer.
Francis first met Putin in 2013, as the Roman Catholic Church sought to improve ties with the Russian Orthodox Church.
Only in 2009 did the Vatican and Moscow re-establish full diplomatic ties which had been severed during Soviet times.
Relations have improved since the coming to power in the same year of Patriarch Kirill, who headed up the Russian Orthodox Church’s diplomatic arm for years.
The Russian Orthodox Church has frequently accused the Catholic Church of proselytizing in Russia, an Orthodox Christian country of 144 million.
The pope in 2016 held a historic meeting with Kirill in Cuba, the first encounter between the heads of the two largest Christian churches since Christianity split into Western and Eastern branches in the 11th Century — an event known as “The Great Schism.”
Kremlin adviser Yuri Ushakov said on Wednesday that “for the time being a possible invitation for the pope to visit Russia is not on the agenda.”
The pope and Putin will discuss “preserving Christian holy sites in Syria,” the Kremlin said.
Salvini and fellow Deputy Prime Minister Luigi Di Maio will attend a dinner for Putin in the evening, after which the Russian president will meet his old friend and former premier Silvio Berlusconi, known for his sex scandals and “bunga bunga” parties.
“We are bound by a friendship stretching back many years,” Putin said in the Corriere interview, hailing “a politician of global stature.”
