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Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova's answer to a media question regarding statements by Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio

20 July 2022 10:57
1503-20-07-2022

Question: During the interviews Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio gave on July 15-17, including to the EU news portal Politico and Italian newspapers La Stampa and Il Messaggero, he said that the Russian leadership aimed to destabilise Italy and Europe and rejoiced at the news of the resignation of Mario Draghi's government, and that the Russian ambassador as good as orchestrated the actions of certain political forces in Italy. Could you please comment on these statements?

Maria Zakharova: We would be overwhelmed by the might of Russian diplomacy, if we were to believe Italian media reports. It has transpired that our ambassadors can change governments by making a few phone calls. Joking apart, we have to say that the head of the Italian foreign policy department is still trying to find external causes for Italy's internal political problems. There is nothing new in that. Such methods have been used by representatives of other Western countries, when they wanted to divert the blame for their own flops away from themselves amid growing public discontent. This is exactly what is happening now on the energy and grain markets.

In this particular case, the name of Ambassador Sergey Razov was used to create a semblance of credibility. Unfortunately for them, he has left Italy for a planned vacation, which was scheduled for July, and the Foreign Ministry of Italy has been duly notified of that.

We would like to point out that, unlike the "truly democratic states" whose representatives often admit, openly and without batting an eyelash, to helping plan state coups in other countries, Russia has always been and remains committed to the principle of non-interference in the affairs of sovereign states, and its foreign missions strictly comply with the provisions of the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. We have pointed this out on numerous occasions, including the other day in the context of the internal political developments in Italy.

We would like to recommend that European politicians look for the causes of internal crises in their own mistakes and lack of professionalism, which are increasing the socioeconomic impact on people in the EU countries.