Silvio Berlusconi: Vladimir Putin was pushed to war against Ukraine

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Pretty best friends: Vladimir Putin (left) and Silvio Berlusconi in July 2019

Photo: SPUTNIK / REUTERS

In a few days, Italy will elect a new parliament.

The country is threatened with a shift to the right.

Silvio Berlusconi is being traded as the next president of a legal alliance.

In a talk show, the former Italian prime minister not only downplayed Vladimir Putin's war aims, but also claimed that the Russian ruler had been pushed into a war of aggression against Ukraine.

"Putin was urged by the Russian people, by a party, by his ministers to come up with this special operation," Berlusconi said on Rai.

Putin only wanted to replace Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj with a government of "decent people," Berlusconi claimed on the late-night talk show Porta a Porta.

Then it met with resistance from Ukraine, he admitted.

What Putin did wrong: Russian troops shouldn't have attacked everywhere in Ukraine, but should have concentrated on Kyiv.

Berlusconi is considered a personal friend of Putin and after the outbreak of war he hesitated for a long time to condemn the invasion.

Now he said: "Putin has slipped into a really difficult and dramatic situation." He used this expression deliberately because in February Putin had been asked by representatives of the two self-proclaimed republics in Donbass to intervene.

They persuaded Putin by claiming that Ukraine was attacking the areas more and more violently.

The statements of the media entrepreneur, who, in addition to his politics, attracted attention through various scandals, alarmed all those who fear that Italy will turn to Russia after the election.

In addition to Berlusconi, Matteo Salvini is also part of the right-wing bloc – the head of the Lega was a Putin fan for years and criticizes the West's sanctions against Moscow.

Central candidate Carlo Calenda called Berlusconi's performance »really tragic«.

The Forza Italia founder is "something between Putin's press secretary and military adviser".

Former Prime Minister Enrico Letta of the Social Democrats tweeted on Friday: "There are no words to comment on this."

On Thursday, the Russian embassy in Rome provoked a post on Facebook in which it published photos of Italian politicians at their meetings with Putin in previous years.

Among them were Berlusconi and Salvini, but also other campaigners like Letta, Giuseppe Conte, Matteo Renzi or Luigi Di Maio and even President Sergio Mattarella and predecessor Giorgio Napolitano.

"From the recent history of Russian-Italian relations," it said.

"Some we must remember."

svs/dpa/Reuters