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Russia-Italy trade hit $36 billion in 2007

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MOSCOW, April 2 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's trade with Italy grew to a record high of $36 billion last year, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at a meeting with Italian businessmen on Wednesday.

Putin was speaking during talks with 15 major Italian businessmen at his countryside residence near Moscow. The meeting also involved Russian Economic Development and Trade Minister Elvira Nabiullina and the Russian ambassador to Italy, Alexei Meshkov.

"Last year, bilateral trade between our countries increased substantially to a record $36 billion. The increase was driven by a rise in Russian energy supplies and an almost 50% growth in Italian exports," Putin said.

Alexei Miller, CEO of Russian energy giant Gazprom, said earlier this month that Italy was the company's second-largest gas market. Italy actively supports the Russian-led South Stream pipeline project designed to pump 30 billion cubic meters of Central Asian gas to Europe. The project also involves Serbia, Greece, Bulgaria and Hungary.

Italy and Russia are also developing jointly a hi-tech project to build the Superjet-100 medium-haul passenger airliner.

Putin also said, "Multi billion investment in Russian power engineering is a tangible and serious step toward expanding cooperation between Russia and Italy, as well as between Russia and its European partners."

The Russian president also announced that the two countries would hold a fifth round of interstate consultations in the latter half of this year.

"We are open to a close and comprehensive partnership with Italian businesses," the Russian leader said, adding that no developments within Russia or Italy would be able to hamper their bilateral business partnership, which he said was set to "expand and strengthen."

Russia held presidential polls on March 2, and Putin will cede his post to current First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev on May 7. Early parliamentary elections will be held in Italy next week.

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