Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova’s answer to Italian news agency ANSA’s question on Moscow’s alleged attempts to interfere in Italian elections 

Question: In Italy there resumed discussion of the Russian Embassy’s contacts with one of the political parties from the government coalition, which were allegedly directed at undermining the performance of Mario Draghi’s cabinet. Can you comment on that? 

Maria Zakharova: As they say in Russia: We have never seen it before, and here it goes again. We seem to have repeatedly commented on the topic.

If I understand correctly, it is about articles in the same newspaper that has excelled in the past months with a big number of obvious fakes. Suffice it to recall the outrageous fraud by that newspaper on March 16 of this year when a story about the shelling of Kiev under the headline “Massacre” was accompanied by a photo showing the aftermath of a missile strike by the Ukrainian Armed Forces on the center of Donetsk. It was in the pages of this media outlet that the possibility and expediency of physically removing President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin was discussed. There is no point in engaging in polemics or otherwise commenting on the fabrications of this newspaper, which, unfortunately, can already claim to be one of the main fabricators in the Italian media.   

It’s like a fairy tale: the further away, the scarier it gets. If earlier the power to change governments in Rome was attributed to the Russian ambassador, now it can be done by an ordinary first secretary asking a question to an assistant of an Italian politician. Apparently, future political crises in Italy will be caused by the mere appearance of a young attaché or even a secretary with a Russian surname.

I would like to stress once again that we regard Italy as a sovereign state pursuing an independent domestic and foreign policy. We consider Italy to be a strong and fully capable country, which rightly occupies a unique place in world history and has a positive influence on international affairs. That is why relations between Russia and Italy have always been characterised by pragmatism, mutual understanding and mutual respect.

Therefore, we are perplexed to see how readily the Italian political class and media forget their self-sufficiency and national pride and begin to take guidance from outside players, such as copying the worst practices of election campaigns and attempts to play the “Russian card” by rolling out the hackneyed myth of election interference by Moscow.