Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said on Saturday that he was “deeply disappointed and saddened by Vladimir Putin’s behavior” and was close, but accepted “the most serious responsibility before the whole world” by attacking Ukraine.
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“I can not hide, I do not want to hide the fact that I am deeply disappointed by the behavior of Vladimir Putin, who has taken the most serious responsibility in the world,” he confirmed at a public meeting in Rome. The right-wing Forza Italia Party is part of a broader coalition supporting the Mario Draghi-led government.
The 85-year-old billionaire, who was head of government three times between 1994 and 2011, said, “I knew him twenty years ago. He always seemed to me a democrat and a peaceful man.” Mr. Mr. Berlusconi so far. He refrained from publicly criticizing Putin.
When he was in power, Mr. Berlusconi maintained a personal friendship with the Russian president and even went so far as to invite him to his luxurious villa in Sardinia.
He reiterated that “Russia cannot deny its responsibilities in the face of the horrors of civilian massacres and real war crimes in Bautista and elsewhere.”
