Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian ex-premier who has a longtime friendship with Vladimir Putin, has been caught on audiotape boasting that he had recently reconnected with the Russian president and exchanged gifts of vodka, wine and “sweet” letters over his recent birthday.
Italy’s LaPresse news agency published what it said were comments by Berlusconi, 86, to his center-right Forza Italia lawmakers during a meeting this week in the lower Chamber of Deputies.
“I have reconnected with President Putin,” Berlusconi was heard saying. “He sent me 20 bottles of vodka and a really sweet letter for my birthday. I responded with 20 bottles of Lambrusco (a sparkling Italian red wine) and a similarly sweet letter.” The occasion was Berlusconi’s 86th birthday on Sept. 29, four days after the right won the most votes in Italy’s national election.
The comments made front-page news as Italy’s conservative coalition headed by Giorgia Meloni, who has strongly backed Ukraine in Russia’s war, is divvying Cabinet posts before formal consultations this week to form a new government. Forza Italia, the junior member of the coalition, is gunning for the foreign ministry, among other ministries.
In the audiotape, Berlusconi also again seemed to defend Moscow’s position in the war, relaying to his lawmakers that Russian officials have repeatedly said the West is at war with Russia “because we’re giving Ukraine weapons and financing.”
Berlusconi’s office similarly tried to deny his audiotape comments about the birthday vodka. In a preliminary statement Tuesday, his office insisted that he hadn’t restarted relations with Putin and that Berlusconi “told an old story to lawmakers about a episode that occurred years ago.”
Hours later, after the audiotape was released, Forza Italia then tried to distance itself from the comments.
“The position of Forza Italia and President Silvio Berlusconi with respect to the Ukrainian conflict and Russian responsibilities is known to all and is in line with the position of Europe and the United States, reaffirmed on several public occasions,” the party said in a statement. “There are no margins of ambiguity, nor have there ever been.”
(Source AP)
