Russian President Vladimir Putin lamented the “irreparable loss” of former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who died Monday at the age of 86, defining him as a “dear person” and a “true friend.”
“For me, Silvio was a dear person, a true friend,” Putin said in a condolence telegram addressed to Italian President Sergio Mattarella, according to a statement from the Kremlin (Russian presidency).
Putin said he had always admired Berlusconi’s wisdom and praised the Italian politician’s “incredible vital energy”, optimism and sense of humor, according to the French news agency AFP.
Berlusconi died today at the San Raffaele hospital in Milan, where he was born, a victim of leukemia. The right-wing senator, media mogul and former owner of the AC Milan soccer club was prime minister for nine years, three times, between 1994 and 2011.
“In Russia, Silvio Berlusconi will be remembered as a constant and principled advocate of strengthening friendly relations between our countries,” Putin said.
Putin noted that Berlusconi “has made a truly invaluable personal contribution to the development of a mutually beneficial Russian-Italian partnership.”
Berlusconi, a longtime admirer of the Russian leader, said the two had a “genuine personal friendship.”
Putin and Berlusconi have holidayed together several times and have been photographed laughing at each other’s table.
The friendship with Putin has put Berlusconi at odds with the prime minister and partner of the governing coalition, Giorgia Meloni, a staunch supporter of Ukraine in the war that Russia launched on February 24, 2022.
Meloni visited kyiv on February 21, on the eve of the first anniversary of the Russian invasion, and listened to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky criticize Berlusconi during a joint press conference.
“Berlusconi’s house was never bombed, tanks never entered his garden, nobody killed his relatives, he never had to pack his bags at three in the morning and it’s all thanks to Russia’s brotherly love,” Zelensky said then.
Days earlier, Berlusconi had accused Zelensky of being responsible for the war in Ukraine, saying it would be enough for the Ukrainian leader to stop attacking the Donetsk and Lugansk regions in the east of the country.
In October 2022, in the midst of the war in Ukraine and when the negotiations for the formation of the Meloni government were still underway, Berlusconi stated that Putin considered him the first of his “true friends”.
Berlusconi has always supported Russia’s position on the Ukrainian conflict, denouncing the European Union (EU) sanctions against Moscow after the annexation of Crimea in 2014 as “a throwback to the Cold War.”
In September 2015, he visited the Ukrainian peninsula with Putin to drink wine and honor Italian soldiers who died in the Crimean War at the end of the 19th century.
Berlusconi even criticized Putin at the start of the invasion of Ukraine, but later justified his Russian friend’s actions by saying he wanted to overthrow the Kiev government and replace it with “good people.”
Putin also never hid his admiration for Berlusconi, considering him “one of the best politicians in Europe” and “one of the last Mohawks in politics.”
Source: TSF
