ROME, February 7. /TASS/. Italy, by fully joining the collective West's pressure on Moscow and supplying weapons to Ukraine, actually participates in a hybrid war against Russia.
The ambassador to Italy, Alexey Paramonov, believes that the current relations between the two countries are not very much better than they were during World War II.
"The relations between our countries are certainly better now than in 1941-1943, but, unfortunately, not very much. With the beginning of the special military operation in Ukraine Rome fully joined the collective West’s pressure on Russia, which are now openly referred to in Italy as hybrid war. The authorities’ attitude towards Russia is predominantly hostile," Paramonov told TASS in an interview.
The diplomat recalled that since February 2022, eight military aid packages to Ukraine, including a wide range of lethal weapons, had already been approved.
"The other day, the Italian defense minister boasted in an interview that his country was almost in the top five weapons suppliers to the Kiev regime," Paramonov said.
He also recalled the recent unauthorized presence in the area of the Crimean Peninsula of the Italian Air Force's Gulfstream G550 CAEW radio and radio-technical reconnaissance aircraft, which could well participate in gathering intelligence about the Russian forces in Crimea and its transfer to the Ukrainian military for coordinating strikes against targets on Russian territory.
"There are no grounds to say anything about any privileged political ties between our states today. There is nothing left of them," Paramonov stated.
He noted that also in the field of cultural cooperation, the Italian authorities were disrupting ties with Russia.
"On the face of it, the Italian leadership recognizes Russia’s inestimable contribution to the treasury of world culture and opposes the abolition of Russian culture. But at the initiative of the Italian side, Russian and Italian cultural institutions, such as theaters, museums, film studios, circuses, as well as universities and schools - can no longer interact and communicate with each other. The organization of any event in Italy with Russian participation, even at the initiative of Italian activists, may run the risk of being slammed as propaganda and canceled by the Italian authorities," Paramonov said.