Scholarly record

RUSSIA AND ITALY: PECULIAR ASPECTS OF RELATIONS

T. Zonova

Abstract

As part of the history of international relations, bilateral relations between Italy and Russia are of particular interest. Numerous studies in this field suggest certain interdependence between Russian and Italian policies over centuries. The initial part of the article is concerned with the less known historical vicissitudes of the relations. Major attention is paid to the Cold War period when the Italian Christian democrats managed, despite block policy impediments, to establish good working relations with the Soviet Union. The links between the Communist Party of the USSR and the Italian Communist Party, the major communist party in the West, plaid a particular role in the bilateral state relations despite serious ideological disagreement occurred in the seventieth. In a sense, Italy became a kind of a political border line between the two blocs. Thus, unlike other democracies in Western Europe, in Italy, it was not the political divide between left and right, but rather between communists and anti communists. Therefore, the Italian political system was described by several political scientists as an "imperfect" or "blocked" democracy as there had never been any interchange between the ruling parties and the communist opposition. A new rapprochement occurred between the new Russia and the reformed Italy after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the transformation of the Italian political system. Finally, the author examines the current situation when Russia found itself under sanctions and when Italy, according to “Financial Times”, appeared to be the main obstacle to toughening those sanctions.

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