"Relations between our countries have undergone considerable changes recently," Putin told Piero Francesco Guarguaglini, adding that bilateral trade had grown 2.5-fold in the last four years.
Putin hailed Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's personal contribution to the growth and said the Italian concern, which has been operating on the Russian market since the 1960s, and its Russian partners were "capable of making further steps in bilateral relations."
Alenia Aeronautica, an affiliate of Finmeccanica, which controls over 100 companies across the world in the spheres of space and aircraft building, military equipment production, transportation and energy, is designing the Russian Regional Jet (RRJ) in cooperation with the Ilyushin Design Bureau and Boeing.
Guarguaglini said the $700-million RRJ project, the Russian aircraft industry's most ambitious undertaking, was the critical project at the moment. The jet is expected to undergo certification in Russia in late 2007, and in Europe in early 2008.
Guarguaglini told the meeting, which was also attended by Russian officials and Italian and Russian businessmen, including Mikhail Pogosyan, the general director of aircraft manufacturer Sukhoi, that he hoped Finmeccanica would sign an agreement with the Russian holding in the near future. A preliminary agreement to buy at least a 25% block in subsidiary Sukhoi Civil Aircraft (SCA) was signed by Alenia, Italy's leading aeronautics producer and a major player on the European aerospace market, in August.
Last year, Finmeccanica signed a cooperation agreement with Russian railroad monopoly Russian Railways.
