Berlusconi criticized for getting vodka, letters from Putin

ROME (AP) — The European Union's executive branch reminded Silvio Berlusconi on Wednesday that Russia “illegitimately” invaded Ukraine, after the former Italian premier was recorded boasting that he had recently reconnected with Russian President Vladimir Putin and exchanged gifts of vodka, wine and “sweet” notes over his birthday.

The reaction from Brussels added to the upheaval that Berlusconi's comments had in Italy, where far-right leader Giorgia Meloni is putting together a Cabinet before an expected mandate to form Italy's next government. Berlusconi's center-right Forza Italia is gunning for the foreign ministry, at a time when Meloni and the EU have strongly backed Ukraine in Russia's war.

The drama began when Italy’s LaPresse news agency published a recording of what it said were comments by Berlusconi, 86, to his lawmakers this week in the lower Chamber of Deputies. The three-time premier and media mogul has a long-standing friendship with Putin and has previously seemingly justified Moscow's invasion.

“I have reconnected with President Putin — a little, a lot,” Berlusconi was heard saying. “He sent me 20 bottles of vodka and a really sweet letter for my birthday. I responded with 20 bottles of Lambrusco (a sparkling Italian red wine) and a similarly sweet letter.”

Berlusconi turned 86 on Sept. 29, four days after the right-wing coalition won the most votes in Italy’s election.

LaPresse on Wednesday published another recording, apparently from the same session, in which Berlusconi seemingly defended Putin's decision to try to oust the Ukrainian government. Berlusconi spoke disparagingly of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, accused him of provoking the conflict by increasing attacks on the eastern Donbas after 2014, when Russia-backed separatists started fighting Ukrainian troops. He said Putin's “special operation” in Ukrainewas supposed to have lasted just two weeks to install a “decent, sensible” government in Kyiv.

But thanks to “unexpected and unforeseen” Ukrainian resistance and funding and weapons from the West that arrived “on day three, a special operation that was supposed to have lasted two weeks has become a war that will last some 200-plus years,” Berlusconi said.

He added that there were no “true leaders” left in Europe or the U.S.

European Commission spokeswoman, Nabila Massrali, was asked to respond to the comments Wednesday, and recalled that EU member states are free to conduct bilateral contacts with Moscow, while respecting the EU policy to scale down such relations “to the necessary minimum.”

"The priority of these contacts should of course convey EU positions regarding the illegitimate invasion and aggression against Ukraine and call on Russian counterparts to stop it immediately and comply with international law,” she said.

Vodka imports from Russia are banned, but Massrali said she would inquire whether that ban also applies to gifts.

In the recording, Berlusconi also seemed to defend Moscow’s in the war, telling lawmakers that Russian officials have repeatedly said the West is at war with Russia “because we’re giving Ukraine weapons and financing.”

In previous comments, Berlusconi seemed to justify Russia's invasion by saying Putin was forced into it by pro-Moscow separatists in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine — a similar scenario he painted in the recording published Wednesday.

“The troops were supposed to enter, reach Kyiv within a week, replace (Ukrainian President Volodymyr) Zelenskyy’s government with decent people and then leave,” Berlusconi told his favorite late-night talk show host on Sept. 22. Later he backtracked, saying his words had been “oversimplified.”

Berlusconi’s office at first tried to deny his comments about the birthday vodka. In a preliminary statement Tuesday, his office insisted that he hadn’t restarted relations with Putin and that Berlusconi “told an old story to lawmakers about a episode that occurred years ago.”

Hours later, after the audio was released, Berlusconi's Forza Italia party tried to distance itself from the comments.

“The position of Forza Italia and President Silvio Berlusconi with respect to the Ukrainian conflict and Russian responsibilities is known to all and is in line with the position of Europe and the United States,” the party said. “There are no margins of ambiguity, nor have there ever been.”

Berlusconi has a long, friendly history with Putin: He has entertained the Russian leader at his Sardinian villa and even visited Crimea with Putin in 2014 after the Russian leader annexed the peninsula from Ukraine.

Berlusconi’s latest comments are likely to complicate relations with Meloni, who is expected to become Italy’s next premier. Meloni’s far-right credentials and past euroskeptic views have raised eyebrows in some European capitals, but she has staunchly supported NATO and Ukraine in the war.

Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party, which has its roots in a neo-fascist movement, didn’t respond publicly to Berlusconi's comments. But the opposition Democratic Party’s Enrico Letta, who has warned that Meloni’s far-right-led coalition represents a threat to democracy, pounced. Letta said Berlusconi's comments were “incompatible” with Italy and Europe's positions on the war and undermine the credibility of any new Meloni-led government.

“Any government that is born in Europe today has to choose whether to be with Putin, or with Ukraine and the European Union,” Letta said. “The Meloni government is being born under the worst sign of ambiguity.”

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Raf Casert contributed from Brussels.

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