Maria Zaharova, Photo: Sputnik / Profimedia Images
The Italian Foreign Ministry announced on Monday that it will summon the Russian ambassador to deliver a protest, after the spokeswoman of the Russian Foreign Ministry mocked the collapse of a medieval tower in the center of Rome, which injured several renovation workers, including two Romanians.
The spokeswoman of the Russian MFA, Maria Zakharova, said on Monday that, following the aid offered to Ukraine in the conflict with Russia, Italy's economy will collapse like the tower in Rome.
Specifically, as reported by the Italian news agency ANSA, Zakharova linked the accident in Rome to the military support given to Ukraine, saying that “as long as the Italian government continues to waste taxpayers' money, Italy – from its economy to its towers – will completely collapse.”
Maria Zaharova says that “Russophobia” in Italy leads to problems in this country
The convocation could take place on Tuesday, according to sources from the Italian MFA, reports the EFE press agency, quoted by Agerpres.
The Russian ambassador Alexei Paramonov was also summoned to the Italian MFA in July, after Russia included the president of Italy, Sergio Mattarella, and other representatives of the government in Rome on a list of “examples of Russophobic behavior”.
The decision taken by Italy after Russia included President Mattarella on the list of “Russophobes”
Russia's gesture then came after several statements by Mattarella. In one of these, made in Japan during a visit to the monument erected in memory of the victims of the American nuclear attack in Hiroshima, the Italian president accused Russia of “being the promoter of a new and dangerous nuclear narrative”, which “induces the unacceptable idea that nuclear weapons can be transformed into an ordinary instrument of conflict management”.
A month earlier, President Sergio Mattarella, 84, said at a ceremony where he was awarded a doctor honoris causa by the French University of Marseille that Russia's invasion of Ukraine had “traits” of the Nazi Third Reich.
“Retaliations will follow”, threatens the Russian ambassador in Rome, if Italy participates in the seizure of frozen Russian assets
Romanian workers injured in the incident
A Romanian worker remains trapped under rubble after parts of the Torre dei Conti, a tower near the Colosseum, partially collapsed on Monday while renovation work was underway.
“We are trying to extract him alive, but the situation is complex because of the risk of further collapses,” explained a spokesman for the Italian fire brigade, Luca Cari.
A second Romanian worker was hospitalized with serious but not life-threatening head injuries, while two other workers suffered minor injuries and refused admission.
There were two collapses of the masonry of the 29-meter high tower, the first around 11:30 local time (12:30 in Romania) and the next about 90 minutes later.
The medieval tower, built by Pope Innocent III at the beginning of the 13th century, was to be transformed into a museum and conference space and is located halfway down the Via dei Fori Imperiali, the wide boulevard that leads from Piazza Venezia to the Colosseum.
VIDEO One of the Romanian workers injured in Rome after a medieval tower partially collapsed during some works was pulled out from under the rubble after 11 hours
