By ANDREW E. KRAMER

MOSCOW — The Italian energy company Eni sold a 20 percent stake in the Russian oil giant Gazprom Neft for $4.1 billion Tuesday in the largest of a dozen or so deals announced during a Russian-Italian business forum.

The two countries have warm business ties, even as Russia’s trade relations with other European countries have soured. Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian prime minister, was scheduled to attend the forum in Moscow but canceled to remain in Italy in the aftermath of an earthquake in the Abruzzo region.

In other agreements signed Tuesday, Finmeccanica, the Italian aerospace company, bought a 25 percent stake in the civilian aircraft division of the Russian aircraft manufacturer Sukhoi, which is better known for its fighter jets. With Boeing in an advisory role, Sukhoi is now developing a regional passenger jet, the Superjet. The price of the sale to Finmeccanica was not disclosed.

Finmeccanica also signed an agreement with the state-owned holding company Russian Technology to develop security systems for guarding airports, oil depots and other large installations, the Interfax news agency reported.

Eni also signed deals with the Russian state oil company Rosneft and with two pipeline-building companies, Transneft and Stroytransgaz.

Eni’s sale of the stake in Gazprom Neft was expected. The Italians sold the shares to Gazprom, which had an option to buy them. The deal deepens a long-running partnership between the Italian company and the Russian natural gas monopoly, including an agreement to jointly build the South Stream pipeline under the Black Sea.

The sale Tuesday also was the final step in a long unwinding of a planned merger between Yukos and Sibneft, the company that was renamed Gazprom Neft when Gazprom bought it from the billionaire Roman A. Abramovich in 2005. Yukos had purchased the shares in Sibneft in anticipation of that merger; when Yukos was forced into bankruptcy, it was still holding the shares in what had become the oil arm of Gazprom.

Eni bought the Gazprom Neft stake at a bankruptcy auction of Yukos assets in April 2007 with the understanding they would be resold to Gazprom. Gazprom now has 95.68 percent of Gazprom Neft.

-----------------------

see toon at top...

LONDON: The close friendship between Russia's macho Prime Minister, Vladmir Putin, and Italy's septuagenarian lothario, Silvio Berlusconi, has emerged as a major source of anxiety in Washington, the latest cables published by WikiLeaks reveal.

According to a flurry of communications on the relationship, there are also serious allegations of ''shared, personal business interests'' in Russian gas projects worth billions - which both leaders deny.

Mr Berlusconi was due [to] visit Mr Putin's Black Sea dacha in Sochi last night. Plans for the visit emerged just hours after the publication of the damaging WikiLeaks cables.

Mr Berlusconi had been due to attend a two-day Italo-Russian summit that included a lunch with the President, Dmitri Medvedev, tomorrow. But, according to the Ansa news agency, Mr Putin will also fly to Sochi to attend the lunch.

Before leaving, Mr Berlusconi said: ''The US know full well that I have no interests with any countries, and no personal interests, and that I have only the interests of Italy and my country at heart.''

The cables suggest Mr Berlusconi's negotiation of generous conditions for the Italian oil and energy company Eni with the Russian firm Gazprom is related to the Italian leader supporting Russian energy projects rather than those of Western nations, a development the US believes endangers their own energy interests.

http://www.smh.com.au/world/mates-rates-concerns-over-berlusconiputin-deals-20101203-18jus.html

see toon at top...