An issue is brewing in Italy over a leaked recording by which former top minister and recently-elected Senator Silvio Berlusconi claims to have “rekindled” ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The audio was once allegedly taken from a gathering by which Berlusconi was once chatting with his birthday celebration’s new parliamentarians.
The debatable ex-premier — nicknamed ‘il Cavaliere’ (“the Knight”) — lately leads the Forza Italia birthday celebration, which is a part of the Giorgia Meloni-led right-wing coalition that emerged victorious within the nation’s snap basic election on 25 September.
“Russian ministers have said on several occasions that we are at war with them because we are providing arms and funding to Ukraine,” Berlusconi reportedly mentioned.
“I can’t personally give my opinion because if it is told to the press it will turn out to be a disaster, but I am very, very, very worried. I rekindled relations with President Putin, a little bit. I knew him as a peaceful and sensible person.”
The audio record additional suggests Putin – whose invasion of Ukraine and human rights file has made him a pariah amongst European leaders – talented Berlusconi 20 bottles of vodka for his 86th birthday on 29 September at the side of a “very sweet letter”, to which the latter returned the favour by way of sending Lambrusco wine.
Berlusconi added that Putin deemed him “the first of his five true friends”.
Berlusconi’s group have denied the allegations. Nevertheless, the 2 leaders have engaged in a widely-publicised, decades-long friendship, with quite a lot of exchanges of presents.
On Putin’s sixty fifth birthday in 2017, the Italian ex-PM despatched the Russian President a cover duvet which depicts the 2 leaders shaking fingers.
More these days, Berlusconi gave a televised interview — days earlier than the September election — the place he claimed Putin have been “pushed” into invading Ukraine, and sought after to switch President Volodymyr Zelenskyy with “decent people”.
The new recording, printed by way of information company La Presse on Monday, has rocked the right-wing bloc, which is lately within the strategy of forming a central authority.
The coalition has already been scrutinised for its effervescent tensions and rivalries, particularly between Berlusconi himself and the chief, Meloni – whom he was once these days stuck calling “patronising, overbearing, arrogant and offensive”.
Moreover, different contributors of the rightist bloc, particularly Northern League chief Matteo Salvini, were criticised for his or her stances on Russia, together with their former endorsement of Moscow.
Giorgia Meloni, who is about to develop into Italy’s new and primary feminine top minister, has taken a pro-NATO and strongly anti-Putin stance. Following the leaked recording, she has affirmed that Italy’s stance on Russia would now not exchange.
