ROME (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 09th February, 2023) After the beginning of Russian special military operation in Ukraine, relations between Russia and Italy deteriorated significantly, while the swiftness and depth of these changes came as a surprise, Russian Ambassador to Italy Sergey Razov told Sputnik on Thursday.
"Our bilateral relations have degraded significantly. As a person who has been working in Italy for quite a long time as an ambassador, I'm talking about this with sincere regret," Razov said.
The diplomat noted that Italy often referred to Euro-Atlantic solidarity, the binding character of collective decisions, but, in his opinion, the responsibility for such decisions is always individual.
"The change in Italy's position was no surprise. Italy is a member of NATO, the EU, the G7, and other Euro-Atlantic structures that have set a course to impoverish Russia, inflict maximum damage on it, and isolate it in international affairs. Domestic political process in the Apennines also played a role. Perhaps, the surprise was the swiftness and depth of these changes in relation to Italy, which has traditionally advocated dialogue with Russia, comparing favorably to many other Western countries with balanced approaches and its focus on constructive cooperation," he stressed.
Moreover, Italy is becoming a party to the Ukrainian conflict by supplying weapons to Kiev. The Italian authorities' statements regarding Russia are becoming hostile, while the key mechanisms for dialogue between the two countries are frozen and sanction pressure is increasing, Razov said.
"As part of five assistance packages, Kiev received weapons and military equipment worth 1 billion Euros ($1.073 billion). A sixth package, which includes the transfer of a modern and very expensive air defense and missile defense system, is being prepared," the diplomat said.
In April 2022, Moscow sent a note to NATO member states condemning their military assistance to Kiev after Russia started its military operation in Ukraine. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov warned that any arms shipments on Ukrainian territory would be "legitimate targets" for Russian forces. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has also warned that pumping Ukraine with weapons was not conducive to peace negotiations and would have a detrimental effect on the conflict.
