In an interview, Berlusconi condemned the war but said separatists from Ukraine’s Donbass region had come to Moscow to tell the media that the attacks in Ukraine had claimed 16,000 lives and accuse Putin of doing nothing to defend them.
In an interview, Berlusconi condemned the war but said separatists from Ukraine’s Donbass region had come to Moscow to tell the media that the attacks in Ukraine had claimed 16,000 lives and accuse Putin of doing nothing to defend them.
The leader of the center-right Forza Italia (FI) party, Silvio Berlusconi, claimed that Russian President Vladimir Putin was pushed into the war in Ukraine by pro-Russian separatists in Donbass, the Russian media and the Russian people.
The former prime minister, known to have ties to the Russian president, condemned the war but said separatists from Ukraine’s Donbass region had come to Moscow to tell the media that the attacks in Ukraine had claimed 16,000 lives and Putin accuse them of having done nothing to defend them.
“Putin was pressured by the Russian people, his party and his ministers to invent this special operation,” Berlusconi, Italy’s three-time prime minister, whose party is part of the far-right coalition that polls, said in an interview. victory in next Sunday’s elections.
The Italian media mogul stated that the intention was for Russian troops to “enter Kiev within a week, arrive in Kiev, overthrow and replace the president’s government.” [Volodymyr] Zelensky by decent people and a week later withdraw and return to Russia.”
“Instead, they encountered unexpected resistance fueled by weapons of all kinds from the West,” Berlusconi reported.
“The war has lasted more than 200 days, the situation has become very difficult. I feel bad when I hear about the dead because I have always believed that war is the greatest of all madness,” he said.
Relations with Russia have been one of the themes of the election campaign, and even the Russian embassy in Italy has re-entered the campaign, posting photos of President Vladimir Putin with Italian politicians from all ideological fields on their social media.
“From the recent history of relations between Italy and Russia. We have a lot to remember,” reads a Facebook post, which two days before the September 25 elections was interpreted as another meddling in Italian politics.
The post contains photos of Putin with some Italian political leaders over the years: Matteo Salvini (Liga), Giuseppe Conte (M5S), Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio, Silvio Berlusconi, who has always declared himself a friend of the Russian president , but also from Democratic Party (PD) leader and former Prime Minister Enrico Letta.
The list continues with images of Putin with heads of state Sergio Mattarella and Giorgio Napolitano and with former head of government Matteo Renzi, as well as with current EU Commissioner for Economy, Paolo Gentiloni.
Source: DN
