From Kiev the question: “Will Putin say goodbye to his dear friend?”
“Putin has said several times that Mr. Berlusconi was a close friend of his. Will Putin dare to personally bid his last respects and visit the funeral?” Anton Gerashchenko, adviser to the Ukrainian Interior Ministry, asks on Twitter, attaching a photo of Vladimir Putin – who is hit by an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court – and Silvio Berlusconi, who died today at the age of 86. The Russian president, in a note, expressed “great sorrow” over the disappearance of the leader of Forza Italia. “In Russia he will be remembered as a consistent and principled supporter of strengthening friendly relations between the two countries” Italy and Russia, Putin said.
At the beginning of the year, some statements by Berlusconi on the war between Ukraine and Russia provoked a reaction from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. “As premier I would never have spoken to Zelensky”, Berlusconi’s words in February. “If I had been the prime minister, I would never have gone to talk to Zelensky because we are witnessing the devastation of his country and the massacre of its soldiers and civilians. It was enough for him to stop attacking the two autonomous republics of Donbass and this it would not have happened, so I judge this gentleman’s behavior very, very negatively”.
“Berlusconi? Nobody has ever bombed his house, nobody showed up with tanks in his garden…”, Zelensky’s words, questioned in the press conference during Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s visit to Kiev.
“The different leaders have the right to think, the real problem is the approach of Italian society which has given those leaders a mandate. I believe that Berlusconi’s house has never been bombed by missiles, never have tanks arrived in the garden of his house, no one killed his relatives, he never had to pack his suitcase at 3 in the morning to escape or his wife had to look for food and all this for the love of his Russian brothers”, Zelensky’s answer. “I wish peace to all Italian families, even to those who don’t support Ukraine, but ours is a great tragedy that must be understood. I want them to come here and see with their own eyes, see the trail of blood they left” .
Source-www.adnkronos.com