Rome, April 24, (dpa/GNA) – The Russian ambassador to Italy, on Wednesday blasted the government in Rome after being summoned over a Russian TV host’s offensive comments, directed towards Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, summoned Ambassador Alexey Paramonov after broadcaster and Russian propagandist, Vladimir Solovyov, insulted the Italian prime minister on Russian state television, calling her “a fascist,” “a certified idiot” and “an ugly, nasty little woman,” among other things.
Tajani said, in the Wednesday meeting, he told Paramonov it was “unacceptable that a commentator who works for Russia 1, which is state television, should use vulgar, unacceptable language towards the prime minister of a free and democratic state such as Italy,” according to news agency ANSA.
Tajani added that Rome was not objecting to political criticism of Meloni, but to the “vulgar, sexist insults” directed at her.
Paramonov called the summons a “blunder,” accusing the Italian government of using the TV host’s comments as “a pretext” since “no reasonable person would ever think of interpreting anyone’s personal, emotional and private assessments as if they were official statements by a state’s government.”
Paramonov went on to suggest that “anti-Russian forces linked to Ukraine” within the Italian government were behind the “attempt to inflate this episode into an international and political scandal.”
Solovyov, a prominent Kremlin propagandist, made the comments during a live broadcast, also calling Meloni “a disgrace to humanity” in Italian and accusing her in Russian of “betraying” US President Donald Trump.
GNA