War: side effects

Relations between Italy and Russia mainly depend on trade between the 2 nations. In 2021, Italy exported goods for 7 billion euros but imported goods for 12.5 billion, in particular gas, oil and raw materials. Of the Italian energy consumption, in fact, 38.2% of gas comes from Russia, as well as 17% of oil. There is also a small share of coal of 4.4%. It is therefore clear that almost a quarter of the energy we use, including gas, oil and coal, has Russian origin and replacing this energy sources in short term would be really difficult. From Russia we import not only sources of energy but also many raw materials and other types of goods, for example metallurgical and chemical products, paper and wood products. But above all food and agricultural products, in particular wheat, of which Russia is the first producer in the world, but also corn and soy, used mainly as feed and to produce seed oil. But it is not only a problem of import – export: in Russia there are 442 subsidiary offices of our companies that give jobs to almost 35,000 people. Another important sector in relations between Italy and Russia is tourism. The Russian-Ukraine war will also cause huge losses to our tourism sector, whose turnover has already dropped by 80% due to the pandemic. In 2019, Russian tourists in Italy were one and a half million and they spent one billion euros in our country. Given the situation, these numbers now remain a mirage for hoteliers and restaurateurs, increasingly destined to collapse. The war, in addition to causing destruction, deaths and millions of refugees, risks seriously damaging the Italian economy with its side effects on the economy, employment, poverty and health of our population. We cry out loud “NO TO WAR”.