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With the loss of life of Italy’s Silvio Berlusconi on Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin has misplaced one in all his few remaining buddies in Europe.
Putin’s long-standing friendship with the previous Italian prime minister was as controversial because it was essential to cementing ties between the 2 international locations, which frequently made Rome one in all Moscow’s strongest allies within the European Union.
Their glitzy, typically unusual bromance — through which Berlusconi as soon as introduced Putin with reward bedsheets emblazoned with a picture of the 2 males shaking arms — incessantly raised eyebrows in diplomat circles.
The bedsheets had been apparently Berlusconi’s tongue-in-cheek response to revelations that Putin had as soon as given Berlusconi an ornate double-bed, which was described in one in all Berlusconi’s many tanged authorized proceedings.
In response to proof, an escort who was paid to take part in Berlusconi’s recorded a dialog through which Berlusconi advised an escort to attend for him in a mattress, which the lady then described as “Putin’s.”
Some have speculated that Berlusconi, a billionaire, and Putin, a reputed billionaire, engaged in covert enterprise offers. Others pointed to the increasing Russian-Italian commerce relationship, significantly in power,
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Linked by a shared boorish machismo, the 2 leaders had been seen incessantly collectively: at excessive preventing competitions in Russia, laughing at worldwide information conferences, and in full gear for snowboarding journeys alongside Putin’s sidekick, former Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev.
The 2 had been additionally photographed consuming at one in all Putin’s residences in massive fur hats, and vacationing collectively in Sardinia. “Putin has by no means requested me for a single favor, and I’ve by no means requested a favor of him,” Berlusconi as soon as stated.
The friendship, which gave the impression to be based mostly on a mutual self-interest in addition to real affection, incessantly courted scandal.
After Berlusconi resigned from workplace in 2011 amid a number of scandals, together with allegations that he paid for intercourse with an underage intercourse employee (a cost for which he was later acquitted), Putin rallied behind him claiming that his Italian buddy wouldn’t have confronted trial if he had been homosexual.
“Berlusconi is being tried as a result of he lives with girls,” Putin advised an viewers at his annual Valdai convention with Russian and worldwide overseas coverage specialists in 2013. “If he had been gay, nobody would carry a finger in opposition to him.”
In 2015, Ukraine banned Berlusconi from the nation for 3 years after he went with Putin to go to Crimea, which Russia invaded and illegally annexed the yr earlier than.
And final fall — months after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which turned Putin right into a pariah on the worldwide stage — a recording was leaked to the Italian media on which Berlusconi boasted that he had rekindled ties with Putin.
Berlusconi stated Putin had despatched him 20 bottles of vodka for his birthday and a “very beautiful letter,” through which he claimed Putin had referred to as him “primary amongst his 5 finest buddies.”
The incident reportedly precipitated friction with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni who has advocated sending weapons to Kyiv and described Russia’s invasion as an “unacceptable large-scale act of conflict by Putin’s Russia.”
In a tribute on Monday, Putin referred to as Berlusconi a pricey good friend and an excellent politician.
“For me, Silvio was a pricey individual, a real good friend,” Putin stated in an announcement. “I’ve all the time sincerely admired his knowledge, his skill to make balanced, far-sighted selections even in essentially the most troublesome scenario.”
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