Berlusconi Ruffles Feathers With Latest Love Letter to Russia

That’s amore? The celebrated but garish business magnate and former Italian premier, Silvio Berlusconi, has embarrassed Rome again by pinning Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine on Volodymyr Zelensky in remarks that could undercut European unity on combating Russian warmongering. At Milan, Mr. Berlusconi stated, “It would have been enough for [Zelensky] to stop attacking the two autonomous republics of Donbas and this war would not have happened. So I judge this gentleman’s behavior very, very negatively.” Italy’s current premier, Giorgia Meloni, spoke with the Ukrainian president at a summit of the European Council last week at Brussels — a rendezvous that did not meet with the approval of the 86-year-old Mr. Berlusconi, whose Forza Italia party forms part of Ms. Meloni’s governing coalition. “I would never have gone to talk to Zelensky if I had been the prime minister,” Mr. Berlusconi said, “because we are witnessing the devastation of his country and the massacre of its soldiers and civilians.”It is worth recalling that at that same EU parley, the outspoken Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orbán, refused to applaud Mr. Zelensky at a group photo session of European leaders. Yet if frayed relations between some eastern European neighbors are par for the course, any criticism of Ukraine coming from a key Western European power and NATO member like Italy inevitably comes off as untoward. Italy’s relationship with Russia is, as with many things pertaining to Europe right now that are often just below the surface, quite complicated. (So is Turkey’s, for that matter: Even while President Erdogan has tried to mediate between Moscow and Kyiv, he seeks Russian investment to shore up a battered economy.) Although Mr. Berlusconi has frequently spoken of his warm ties with the Russian strongman, so has Matteo Salvini, who heads the Northern League. The League forms the third part of the coalition built around the Fratelli d’Italia party headed by Ms. Meloni — and all this creates a chronic headache for the tough-talking premier. Some Italian lawmakers said that at his advanced age, Mr. Berlusconi is free to say what he thinks. Most, though, tried to walk back his unabashedly pro-Russian remarks. The vice president of the Italian parliament, Fabio Rampelli, told reporters, “I dissociate myself from Berlusconi’s words,” and clarified that “they don’t follow the government’s line.”The Milanese daily Corriere della Serra offered a more nuanced explanation, claiming that beyond whatever amity there is between Messrs. Berlusconi and Putin, the Italian is also motivated by domestic politics. The newspaper reported that three out of four Italians are worried about the consequences of the war in Ukraine. Initially, 55 percent were in favor of sanctions against Russia and 31 percent opposed, but today those in favor have dropped to 46 percent and those against have risen to 37 percent.Mr. Berlusconi also tied prospective Western reconstruction aid for Ukraine to a ceasefire by Kyiv — a dim prospect especially as NATO’s secretary general Jens Stoltenberg said this week that “the reality is that we are seeing the start already” of a new Russian offensive in Ukraine.In any case, Team Meloni reportedly had to work the phones at Rome Monday to defuse a potential diplomatic crisis, the first fissures of which were forming under her nose. A senator with the center-left Democratic Party, Simona Malpezzi, asked, “Is Giorgia Meloni in agreement with the worrying remarks made by Berlusconi? They were very serious. He spoke of the Donbas as autonomous republics whereas the international community has never recognized them as such.”In October, Mr. Berlusconi courted controversy when he said that “the republics of Donbas were desperate because Zelensky had thrown the Minsk agreements to hell and tripled the attacks.”According to some Italian press reports, the foreign minister, Antonio Tajani, has at Ms. Meloni’s insistence interceded to help zip the Italian kingmaker’s provocative lips. Mr. Tajani, who belongs to Forza Italia, has apparently been persuasive; the party boss has not said anything more on the subject since Monday night.Washington has warned Ukraine that it faces a “pivotal” moment in the war and that if Kyiv continues to fight wherever Russia sends its troops it will only play into Moscow’s hands, the Washington Post reported. Administration officials would rather see Ukraine take a more proactive rather than reactive approach and prioritize a spring counteroffensive. Speaking at NATO headquarters in Belgium on Tuesday, Secretary Austin said that the Ukraine Defense Contact Group would “support Ukraine’s fight for freedom over the long haul,” and help Kyiv “hold and advance during the spring counteroffensive.” In the meantime, fighting rages in the eastern Donbas. The New York Times reported that Ukraine has ordered aid groups to leave Bakhmut, which could presage a Ukrainian withdrawal from that fiercely contested city. According to the latest, reasonably objective estimates from Norway, the Russian invasion has by now wounded or killed 180,000 Russian soldiers and 100,000 Ukrainian troops. Ten days before the war reaches its somber one-year anniversary, a total of 30,000 to 40,000 civilians have lost their lives. As the crossed wires multiply across much of Europe, in Ukraine it’s still mostly artillery fire, rockets, and destruction — with neither a ceasefire nor Cupid anywhere in sight.

Berlusconi Ruffles Feathers With Latest Love Letter to Russia

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