Three days before the elections, the Russian embassy in Italy launches a new provocation: a post on social media with a series of shots that portray President Vladimir Putin together with almost all the Italian political leaders engaged in these hours to close the electoral campaign. “From the recent history of Russian-Italian relations. There is a lot to remember”, reads the caption accompanying the photogallery: the first is the famous image of Putin together with Matteo Salvini, Giuseppe Conte and Luigi Di Maio at Villa Madama. Then one in which he shakes hands with Enrico Letta, another to Matteo Renzi, the one with Silvio Berlusconi sitting close eye to eye. And again, other handshakes with Massimo D’Alema and Paolo Gentiloni, but also a photo of the Kremlin leader with President Sergio Mattarella and a vintage photo with the former head of state Giorgio Napolitano. Up to that of the outgoing premier Mario Draghi with – in the absence of anything else – the Foreign Minister Serghei Lavrov at Palazzo Chigi.
Basically an album of memories of the past, dating back to another era, the one before February 24, when Putin decided to invade Ukraine becoming a de facto pariah in the West. Some of the interested parties replied, more with amazement than embarrassment. “I don’t know what they mean, I can answer for myself: I met Putin as a representative of the Italian people, mine was not a personal relationship with him, so much so that afterwards I never looked for Putin or talked to his entourage”, he explained the leader of the M5s Conte, at the time of the yellow-green government Prime Minister’s shot, suggesting that other Italian politicians were more familiar with the tsar. Renzi, on the other hand, does not miss the opportunity to attack the former prime minister directly: “We have been and are in favor of sanctions and the sending of weapons to Ukraine, but we have always said that a channel for dialogue must be left open. They are not like those who change their minds once a day, I think of Giuseppe Conte “, replied the leader of Italia Viva to those who asked him for a comment, deriding the scope of the embassy post:” I believe that the problem is not the post or the tweet, but what Putin said yesterday. The problem is how the international community will respond to the escalation. ” While not appearing in the photos with Putin, Carlo Calenda takes the opportunity to give against the center-right. “We have another certainty: the Meloni-Berlusconi-Salvini government is not a guarantee for international alliances. The only guarantee of fidelity to our allies and to the values of the West is to move forward with Mario Draghi”.
The Russian embassy in Rome is no stranger to such posts and provocations. Since the beginning of the war, it has often entered into collision with the Italian media (up to presenting a complaint, then filed, against La Stampa) or has entered the political debate with a straight leg, accusing, for example, the United States of wanting to “manipulate ‘public opinion on the eve of the elections “with the well-known dossier of the State Department on European parties paid for by Moscow.
Source: Ansa
I’m a journalist who covers health care news. I’ve been working in the news industry for more than 6 years. I have experience writing for print, online, and television. My work has been published by various news websites and magazines.
