MOSCOW, April 29 The Italian-Russian Chamber of Commerce (IRTC) has suspended the system that allowed Russian companies to buy Italian goods for rubles, said the head of the chamber, Ferdinando Pelazzo.
“We started conducting transactions, everything was fine, the conditions were acceptable. But then the Italian Financial Security Committee, which unites several ministries, told us that it does not recommend this scheme,” said the head of the chamber. 
According to him, the reason given by the committee was fears that the mechanism developed by the IRTI could allegedly help in circumventing sanctions. Pelazzo called the committee’s appeal strange, especially considering that the chamber of commerce is controlled by both the Russian and Italian governments.
“In the end, we voluntarily slowed down work on this scheme after we received this letter. Our lawyers are considering the merits of the letter received and are studying the contents of the 13th package of sanctions <…> The Thirteenth package in any case tries to punish third countries that help to circumvent sanctions, but this does not concern us,” the agency’s interlocutor added. 
He emphasized that the chamber does not agree with the regulator’s opinion.
“Firstly, we have always said that we deal with non-sanctioned goods. The second point is that we ourselves check the goods and customs codes,” Pelazzo said.
IRTP intends to raise the issue of the further operation of the mechanism at a meeting of members in July, he added.
The system for member companies of IRTI was launched in test mode in February, the trial period was supposed to last three months. As Pelazzo noted, only categories permitted for import into Russia were included in the exchange of goods. The system allows a Russian buyer to pay the chamber in rubles for Italian goods, and the IRTP itself could then transfer this money to Italy from its account in a third country.
In total, the IRTI includes about 250 companies, most of which are Italian.
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