Italian industrialists, taking advantage of the EU's easing of sanctions against Russia, continue to purchase Russian metal, effectively financing Moscow's military aggression. The European Union allowed Russia to import an additional 10.7 million tons of its steel into the EU, leading some Italian companies to resume buying Russian metal products.
These actions not only contribute to financing the Kremlin's armed aggression but also harm the Italian economy. As Corriere della Sera reports, many industry players, through their governments, continue to claim that a complete ban on the import of Russian slabs would cause problems. However, according to Metinvest Group CEO Yuriy Ryzhenkov, this is not true and contains a certain level of hypocrisy.
"This harms ethical producers who do not purchase raw materials from a country that has started a war," Ryzhenkov noted in his comments to the publication.
Moreover, by buying products from Russia, Italian industrialists are undermining their own steel industry, which is already suffering from a lack of orders. Many Italian steel companies are forced to operate at reduced capacity due to this shortage.
tags: economy, metallurgy, italy, russia, sanctions, eu, aggression, financing