Putin’s Trip to Italy Is Actually Pretty Important. Meetings with Pope Francis
President Putin’s upcoming trip to Italy is
much more important than some people might think because it represents
further progress being reached on a “New Detente”, and could help
improve Orthodox-Catholic relations after his scheduled meeting with the
Pope.
***
President Putin will be in Italy later this week to
meet with the country’s leadership, which has remained surprisingly
pragmatic towards Russia across administrations despite heavy American
pressure for Italy to distance itself from the Eurasian Great Power.
Trade ties are improving against all odds seeing as how the EU’s
anti-Russian sanctions are still in place, which speaks to the interest
that Italy has in carving out an independent niche for itself in the EU.
This role has become even more prominent after last year’s elections
saw the rise of a EuroRealist government to power, one that hasn’t shied
away from supporting its sovereignty. It’s therefore fitting that the
Russian leader will be paying a visit to this Southern European country,
which comes amidst the nascent “New Detente” between Moscow and
Brussels.
French President Macron surprised the world last month when he said that he wants to restore relations with
Russia, after which Prime Minister Medvedev visited Paris to hold talks
with his counterpart at the end of last month. The two premiers pledged to
more actively cooperate with one another, and whether it was just a
coincidence or otherwise, their meeting occurred around the same time as
the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) reinstated
the Russian delegation’s rights after having frozen them for half a
decade already following the Crimea’s reunification. Russian-EU
relations are therefore noticeably on the upswing, at least when it
comes to Moscow’s ties with the bloc’s most influential Western European
members (Germany, France, and Italy), which creates a positive backdrop
to President Putin’s visit to Rome.
Observers shouldn’t expect any dramatic outcome from
this trip but should instead appreciate the pragmatism of yet another
country warming up to Russia and refusing to submit to American
pressure. This doesn’t by any means signify that Italy is
“anti-American” — after all, Deputy Prime Minister Salvini recently wrote on
Facebook that he wants his country to be “the first, most solid, valid,
credible and coherent partner for the United States” — but just that it
won’t sacrifice its national interests at the behest of a foreign
power. Instead, Italy is signaling that it would like to “balance”
between the US and Russia and position itself to play a key role in
facilitating a “New Detente” between them that would also elevate its
diplomatic position in the EU. It’s not unforeseeable that Italy could
make some progress in this respect either, hence why it’s worth
President Putin’s valuable time in traveling there.
He won’t just be meeting with that country’s representatives, but will also have his third meeting with Pope Francis, which Reuters pointed
out will be their first one since the Catholic leader met with
Patriarch Kirill in 2016 during the unprecedented meeting between the
heads of these two Christian sects since their millennium-old schism.
This obviously creates the opportunity for President Putin to build upon
the progress that was previously made and possibly even invite the Pope
to Russia, especially seeing as how he’s already recently visited
several Orthodox-majority countries such as Romania, Bulgaria, and
Macedonia. It’s difficult to predict whether such an offer will be
extended and if the Pope would even commit to such a trip if he was
indeed invited, but since intra-Christian relations are somewhat on the
upswing, then it might be possible.
Of course, serious geo-religious differences still remain between the two, especially over Ukraine,
but those could possibly be surmounted so long as the political will is
present on both sides. In any case, the simple optics of President
Putin meeting with the Pope during the nascent “New Detente” between
Russia and the EU gives off a positive image that powerfully shows just
how much the West’s attitudes towards the Eurasian Great Power are
changing. The US’ infowar narrative that President Putin is a “pariah”
will no longer be as convincing for most Westerners as it previously was
since they’ll see with their own eyes that the spiritual leader that
most of them respect is hosting the Russian President, which in and of
itself makes his upcoming trip to Italy a lot more important than people
might have initially thought.
*
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Andrew Korybko is an
American Moscow-based political analyst specializing in the relationship
between the US strategy in Afro-Eurasia, China’s One Belt One Road
global vision of New Silk Road connectivity, and Hybrid Warfare. He is a
frequent contributor to Global Research.
The original source of this article is Global Research
Copyright © Andrew Korybko, Global Research, 2019
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