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Italy’s incoming prime minister, Georgia Meloni, has issued a stark warning to Silvio Berlusconi that he risks losing influence in the new government because of his friendship with Vladimir Putin as she Russia has insisted on a pro-NATO stance in the war in Ukraine.
“Italy will never be the weak link between the West and us in government,” Ms Meloni said.
She was responding to Berlusconi’s private comments to his Forza Italia lawmakers this week in which the three-time prime minister boasted of reconnecting with Mr Putin and exchanging gifts of vodka and wine on his recent 86th birthday, while proving Putin The legitimacy of Mr. Invade Ukraine.
“I reconnected with President Putin — a little, a lot,” Berlusconi was heard saying in comments recorded and published by Laplace news agency.
“He sent me 20 bottles of vodka and a very sweet birthday letter. I responded with 20 bottles of Lambrusco (a sparkling Italian red wine) and an equally sweet letter.”
Mr Berlusconi’s remarks added to political unrest in Italy as Ms Meloni’s far-right Brother Italia party won the most votes in September 25 elections as she tries to form a cabinet. She is expected to receive the mandate to form Italy’s next government as early as this week.
Berlusconi’s center-right Forza Italia party, a junior partner in her right-wing coalition, is firing on the foreign ministry at a time when Ms Meloni and the EU are strongly backing Ukraine in the war against Russia.
Some analysts believe Mr Berlusconi is deliberately trying to undermine her future government.
Ms Meloni broke a day-long silence by insisting she would lead a government with a clear foreign policy.
“Italy struts its head and is part of the European and (NATO) Atlantic alliance,” she said. “Anyone who disagrees with this cornerstone cannot be part of a government at the cost of no government.”
Mr. Berlusconi has a long-standing friendship with Mr. Putin. He has entertained Russian leaders at his villa in Sardinia and even visited Crimea with Mr Putin in 2014 after the Russian leader annexed it from Ukraine.
After releasing the first recording on Tuesday about Mr Berlusconi’s reconnection with Mr Putin over gifts and “sweet” birthday notes, LaPresse released another recording Wednesday, apparently from the same meeting, in which Mr Berlusconi appeared to be Defend Putin’s decision to try to overthrow the Ukrainian government.
Berlusconi disparaged Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, accusing him of provoking the conflict by increasing attacks on eastern Donbass after 2014, when Russian-backed separatists began fighting Ukrainian troops.
He said Putin’s “special operation” in Ukraine was supposed to last only two weeks to build a “decent, sensible” government in Kyiv.
But thanks to “unexpected and unforeseen” resistance from Ukraine and “Western funds and weapons that arrived on day 3, a special operation that was supposed to last two weeks turned into a war that would last about 200 years.” , Berlusconi said.
He claimed that there were no more “real leaders” in Europe or the United States.
European Commission spokeswoman Nabila Maslali said EU countries were free to engage bilaterally with Moscow while respecting the bloc’s policy of reducing the relationship “to the minimum necessary”.
“The priority of these engagements should of course convey the EU’s position on the illegal invasion and aggression against Ukraine and call on their Russian counterparts to immediately cease and respect international law,” she said.
The import of vodka from Russia is banned, but Ms Maslari said she would ask if the ban also applied to gifts.
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