While Russia seems interested in infrastructural energy projects in the region, Sofia does not want to commit itself to a Russian partnership on energy that would draw the ire of its Western allies.
That thoughtfulness is in evidence not just through their patronage of the arts (he is chairman of the Queen Sofia Spanish Institute and serves on the board at the Metropolitan Opera and at Carnegie Hall, and she is a trustee at the Metropolitan Museum of Art), but also in their generosity with their friends.