In These New Times

We continue our series of posts on the theme of the abandonment of the neo-cons by their own allies. We’ve had Timoshenko, Havel and now Berlusconi

Guy Dinmore in Rome

us.ft.com

Once a favoured ally rewarded for his support of the US invasion of Iraq, Silvio Berlusconi, Italy’s centre-right prime minister, has evolved into a serious irritant for the Bush administration in handling Russia’s invasion of Georgia.

Strains in the transatlantic relationship were on display in Rome on Tuesday as Dick Cheney, the US vice-president, and Mr Berlusconi read out statements.

Mr Cheney strongly condemned Russia’s “unilateral efforts to alter by force of arms Georgia’s internationally recognised boundaries”, and reiterated that Nato had agreed on eventual membership for Georgia and Ukraine.

The US delegation, in Italy for five days, had pushed for clear endorsement from Mr Berlusconi. Instead, he did not utter a word of criticism against Russia. The Italian premier said he had tried to explain to Mr Cheney his personal success in helping to defuse “what happened in Ossetia and then in Georgia”. He stressed the importance of sustaining the Nato-Russia council, the joint forum he inaugurated in 2002 with President George W. Bush and Vladimir Putin, then Russia’s president.

According to European diplomats, Bush administration hawks view with suspicion Mr Berlusconi’s close personal ties to the Russian leader and worry about Italy’s presidency of the G8 from January. Italy has already made clear it intends to invite Mr Putin to the summit in Sardinia.

An attempt by Italy to call a routine meeting of the Nato-Russia council after the invasion of Georgia was blocked by the US.

Concerns grew in Washington that Italy was undermining unity when Franco Frattini, Italy’s foreign minister, went to Moscow last Thursday – on the same day that Mr Cheney was in Georgia and Ukraine, and ahead of Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president leading EU peace efforts and now among Washington’s favourites.

US hawks are alarmed by Italy’s tight energy relationship with Russia, particularly the “strategic partnership” reached between Moscow’s Gazprom and Italy’s part state-owned Eni in 2006, and the South Stream pipeline planned to take Russian gas across the Black Sea.

“Italy is Russia’s Trojan horse in Europe,” said a diplomat from a former Soviet satellite state of the west’s reliance on Russian gas. Italian officials deny Mr Berlusconi has turned his back on the Bush administration.

One Italian statement that did win Mr Cheney’s approval was Mr Frattini’s assertion that Europe needed an energy strategy and should be united when negotiating with Russia, Libya and Algeria.

Privately, Italian officials argue that the US should be the last country to lecture Europe on the dangers of energy dependency, and that Mr Bush and Mr Cheney will soon move on, but Mr Putin and Russia’s gas will not.