• energy policy
• ENI
• Enrico Mattei
• Italy
• Libya
• Russia
• USSR

The object of the research is the Russia-Italy cooperation in energy. The subject of the research is the role of ENI in Russia-Italy energy relations.
My approach is going to be historical and realistic. By this I mean I’m going to deal with historical facts in their relation to the present day. Like any other historian, I intend to show how the developments of the second half of the 20th century influenced and shaped the contemporary state of affairs between Russia and Italy. Besides, I’m going to use a realistic /neo-realism approach in order to understand how Russia influences the political relations in the geopolitical space with its energetic sources. The method used in the thesis is a case study.
The thesis consists of an introduction, two chapters, conclusion and a bibliography.
The introduction deals with the novelty of the research, the aim and tasks, the subject and object, the method, the methodology and the literature review. The first chapter studies the evolution of diplomatic and economic relations between Italy
and USSR/Russia. The second chapter shows Italy and Russia not only as partners but as competitors and rivals in Libya. The conclusion summarizes the main results of the research project.
This work is devoted to both economic and political matters. It is very difficult, if not impossible to separate politics from economy especially when one speaks about Russian energy policy in Europe. Energy is a vital issue. Not only politicians are interested in it but scholars and common citizens as well. The story of relations between Russia and Italy in the oil and gas sector hasn’t been written yet, though it always has been a part of foreign policy in general, and an important part, too. As Andrea Prontera writes, “It is quite surprising that Italy–Russia energy relations have attracted so little attention in the recent scholarly literature, although there are few doubts that they make up a crucial part of present East–West gas interdependence and are particularly interesting from a wider EU perspective. To be sure, there are several historical accounts of Italy–Russia energy relations, but the topic has been overlooked by the current literature on European energy security and EU–Russia relations. Research on EU energy security usually groups Italy among the other large Western gas consumers (Germany and France), which are eager to develop bilateral ties with Moscow rather than delegate energy security to the European Commission and EU-level bloc diplomacy. On the other hand, recent studies of dyadic relations between Moscow and energy importers have mainly focused on the post-Soviet space analysing Russian relations with Eastern European countries, Ukraine, Belarus
and the Baltic states, rather than with the traditional Western consumers. The notable exception regarding East–West gas interdependence is that of Russia–Germany relations, which have been the subject of several studies”. The lack of sufficient information about the relations of Russian and Italy in the oil and gas industry is a serious problem. Alternatively, the less the information, the more interesting it is to study this problem.
The Italy-Russia relations in the energy area show their connection with politics, and, more generally, with history. What I strive for is to show their progress due to the passage of time. The second half of the 20th century and the first quarter of the 21st century present an extremely important era in the international relations. The later years of the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) with its subsequent downfall and the transition of Russia to market economy and capitalism show us how everything can be changed in the modern world in the twinkling of an eye. During these turbulent years, the oil and gas industry was reformed and even increased its significance for Russian economy. The oil price hike in the early 2000s made Russia a prosperous country. It was during this time Russia established economic ties with European countries and became their equal partner. Among those countries there was Italy.