The minister announced on April 21 that Paramonov had been summoned to the Italian Foreign Ministry. Foreign Affairs of Italy Antonio Tajani. This happened against the backdrop of scandalous insults from Russian propagandist Vladimir Solovyov, who cursed Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, calling her, in particular, a “fascist creature.” Tajani called Solovyov's statements “extremely serious and offensive.”
However, according to Paramonov, “purely personal emotional private assessments” of Solovyov “should not be attributed” to the Russian leadership. He called Meloni “a legitimate, popularly supported head of government,” and Solovyov “a very talented and popular journalist.”
The ambassador said that the incident may be related to the activities of supposedly anti-Russian forces in Italy, which are seeking to worsen relations between the two countries, and mentioned Ukraine.
“There is an obvious attempt to quarrel the peoples of Russia and Italy, to weaken our diplomatic contacts, to cause additional image damage to Russia, perhaps in order to recoup their own foreign policy failures, including the last unsuccessful visit [президента Украины Владимира] Zelensky to Rome,” Paramonov said.
According to him, Italian diplomats “hit the bar.”
