The former Italian Prime Minister Senator Silvio Berlusconi said that he was joking when he said that he exchanged with Russian President Vladimir Putin bottles of vodka and wine.
The La Repubblica newspaper writes that in an interview with a television journalist Bruno Vespe an 86-year-old politician admitted that he was trying to contact the Russian leader twice after the invasion of Ukraine, but did not receive an answer, after which he no longer insisted.
Berlusconi explained that when he told the deputies of his party to exchange congratulatory letters for birthdays (September 29 and October 7), he was asked if they exchanged gifts. “Of course, with twenty bottles of vodka and (wine) Lambruo. But everyone realized that it was a joke,” Berlusconi assures.
Earlier in the media, an audio recording leaked to the media, on which Berlusconi says that he “restored relations with Putin”, from which he received a letter for his birthday.
Russian media recalled that last week a press secretary of the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov did not confirm and did not deny that the Russian leader gave Berlusconi 20 bottles of vodka on the occasion of his birthday.
The European Commission became interested in history, which said that such an exchange can be considered a violation of the anti -Russian sanctions of the EU.