“Despite what is happening now, we perceive a certain liking for Russia in Italian society, just as we have for Italy,” Putin said in his end-of-year press conference.
During the conference, Putin recalled his friendship with the late Silvio Berlusconi.
“He was a person of very warm relations, very industrious, very tenacious”, Putin said of Italy’s ex-prime minister.
“He did a lot for the development of relations between Italy and Russia.”
The friendship between the two was highly publicised.
In the background of the war in Ukraine, Putin reportedly sent Berlusconi a bottle of Vodka for his 86th birthday.
Berlusconi sent the Russian leader a bottle of Italian wine in return.
ANSA
