Russian embassy posts photos of Putin with Italian politicians: “We have to remember”

Three days after the vote, the Embassy of the Russian Federation in Italy has published on its social networks a photo gallery showing President Vladimir Putin during institutional meetings with many Italian politicians under the caption with an ironic intent: “From the recent history of Russian relations- Italians. We have some to remember “.

The first picture shows Putin with Matteo Salvini, Giuseppe Conte And Luigi Di Maio during the Roman visit of the Russian president in July 2019. Then with Enrico Letta while shaking hands on the occasion of the bilateral meeting in Trieste in November 2013; with Silvio Berlusconi sitting close together and in a friendly attitude.

In another photo, the handshake with the president Sergio Mattarellaand next to the former president Giorgio Napolitano. And again with Matteo Renzi, Paolo Gentiloni, Massimo D’Alema. An image also of the August 2021 meeting of Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov with the premier Mario Draghi on the Afghan crisis – these were the days of the withdrawal of US troops – and the situation in Libya.

Yesterday the leader of the League Matteo Salvini he recalled that “before the war everyone had relations with Putin: Letta made 28 commercial agreements with him, hugging and kissing him”.

It is not the first time that the social account of the Russian diplomatic representation in the capital enters the field directly in the Italian politics. Like a few days ago, when commenting on a cartoon of Altan, he tweeted: “We rarely agree with what is published in the newspaper” la Repubblica “. But it is difficult not to agree with the words of the second participant in this dialogue”. “If you see 007 everywhere, maybe you read too much ‘Repubblica'”, another tweet from recent days aimed at Italian public opinion.

Last July 20, in the days of the fall of the government Dragonsthe embassy responded with a long post to the foreign minister Di Maio according to which “the Russian leadership” was at work “to destabilize Italy and Europe”. “We ourselves are stunned by the power of Russian diplomacy, – as evidenced by Italian media reports. It turns out that our ambassadors can change governments with a couple of calls. Seriously speaking, we have to admit that the head of the Italian Foreign Ministry continues to look for the external causes of Italy’s internal political problems “.

Another post on the fb page illustrated the details of the organization of the Northern League leader Salvini’s trip to Moscow, scheduled and then canceled last June. “The Embassy – he specifies – assisted Matteo Salvini and the people who accompanied him in buying the plane tickets they needed in rubles through a Russian travel agency. Since Matteo Salvini’s trip to Moscow did not happen for well known reasons, in the end we have been returned the equivalent of the amount spent on the purchase of airline tickets in euros (with respective supporting documents). We see nothing illegal in all these actions. “

Also last June, the ambassador of the Russian Federation to Italy, Sergey Razovwas summoned to the Farnesina by the Secretary General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, the Ambassador Ettore Francesco Sequi. Sequi rejected the allegations of involvement of the Italian media in an “anti-Russian campaign” and the accusations of amorality of some representatives of Italian institutions and media, expressed by the Russian Foreign Ministry. Razov “dwelt on the sometimes unacceptable declarations” of high Italian officials towards Russia and its leadership. He stressed that the propaganda line that is dominating in the Italian media can hardly be qualified other than as hostile “, as can be read on the embassy account.