Newsgroup: it.politica
Titolo: Monopoly for Friendship - cribbio il comunista sono io

 
Monopoly for Friendship
Vladimir Putin and Silvio Berlusconi pay a lot of attention to the economic
issues during the their meetings. However, these issues are unusual ones.
Italian prime minister and Russian president, usually discuss how to convert
Rome's political support to Moscow in to the economic dividends - for the
Italian side, of course. There is a opinion that Berlusconi is probably the
main Putin's ally among the Western countries' leaders. Everyone one knows
by now that the Italian prime minister is one of the best Russian 
president's
buddies. From his side, Berlusconi does not deny this fact but rather he
tries to prove everyone that it is true. For a several times, he
passionately and sincerely (at least, it looked this way) defended his
Russian friend and whole Russia itself from the attacks of mean Western
journalists, who were trying to ask Putin about Khodorkovsky and Chechnya.
It is clear that there is no better attorney for the Kremlin's cause in the
West than Berlusconi.
Putin, from his side, also rushes to help his Italian friend, who's,
periodically, gets in international trouble for his "humorous" remarks. For
instance, Putin, while visiting Finland recently, had to defend Berlusconi's
image in the eyes of the Finns. They got upset by Italian leader comments
about plain and unsophisticated Finnish cuisine. In other words, the
president and prime minister try everywhere to demonstrate their true
friendship.
However, it is hard to get rid off the thought that this friendship has some
cold calculations within. Berlusconi, who also happens to be a very
successful businessman, provides for Russia political services not quite
free of charge. He is converting these services, not directly, of course,
into the serious economic dividends.
The cost of each Russian political issue is measured by, usually, hundreds
of millions Euros. For instance, right before Berlusconi's passionate
defense of Khodorkovsky and Chechnya issues, ENI, which is rumored to be the
company close to the prime minister , received the rights for re-export of
Russian gas in Western Europe.
This time the price could be even higher. Berlusconi is intend to get from
Putin an agreement for increased numbers of Italian industrial districts in
Russia and provision of special economic rights for them. Here, we are
talking about huge economic dividends.
There is a logical question: Why "friend Silvio" suddenly decided to raise
his price for political services? Well, there is a good reason for it. The
experienced businessman Berlusconi calculated everything. Soon, German
Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder will almost certainly leave the political
arena. And Putin would have only one really close friend left - Italian
prime minister. The law of the business says that during the monopoly
situation on the market the price always goes up.
by  Gennady Sysoev, columnist
http://www.kommersant.com/page.asp?idr=520&id=604361

situation on the market the price always goes up.
Tale e quale alla faccenda del decoder aggratisse. O della fine del
monopolio Rai, se e' per questo. O dell'oligopolio delle assicurazioni,
delle banche ecc.ecc.
(Origin: dagli amici mi guardi Iddio o in alternativa Timeo Danaos et dona
ferentes)
-- 
Jolly