ROME, September 07, /ITAR-TASS/. Italy’s former Prime Minister and leader of the opposition party Forza Italia Silvio Berlusconi on Sunday accused NATO and Western leaders of irresponsible attitudes towards Russia.
“We are strangled by a most profound economic crisis, the situation is only worsening and it the situation is being aggravated by the international situation and the decisions of European leaders, heads of Western countries, the United States and NATO, who were irresponsible and unthinking to make null and void of the enormous work done after the signing of the Pratica di Mare agreement [on the establishment of the Russia-NATO Council - ITAR-TASS) that ended the 50-year-long Cold War,” he said.
He said that the recent development around the Ukrainian crisis, the United States’ and the European Union’s policy of sanctions against Russia were irresponsible decision of the world leaders. “Russia cannot but defend Ukrainian citizens of the Russian origin who are like brothers for Russians,” he noted.