Maria Zakharova
The vulgarity of the Russian journalist Vladimir Solovyov towards Giorgia Meloni is the latest episode in a long trail of attacks from Moscow on Rome which, starting from 2022 – when the invasion of Ukraine began and Italy sided with Kiev – have hit the highest officials of the State, up to the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella. Until now, they had been led in particular by Maria Zakharova, the powerful spokesperson of the Russian Foreign Ministry. Now the well-known TV presenter has also been added, considered the ‘megaphone of Tsar Vladimir Putin. The same tsar that Silvio Berlusconi – not too many years ago – considered a friend and an ally. Another era.
Italy and Ukraine: the break with Moscow
Now Italy, associated with Zelensky, has become a traitor, in the eyes of Moscow, and an easy target. The last attack in chronological order was last February against Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, “guilty”, according to the high-ranking Kremlin official, of having reported a series of pro-Russian cyberattacks on Italian embassies and sites and hotels linked to the Cortina Olympics. “Slander,” Zakharova replied. And the Russian embassy had taken things further: “Does anyone doubt that Russia is also guilty of the melting of the glaciers in the Italian Alps, of the bad weather in Sicily, of the diseases of the Roman pines?”.
Also in February, Zakharova’s direct superior, Minister Serghei Lavrov, attacked Corriere della Sera because, according to him, it had refused to publish an interview with her. Zakharova then spoke of a “cowardly newspaper”.
Controversial statements and public controversy
Last November, the spokesperson’s comment on the partial collapse of the Torre dei Conti at the Fori Imperiali in Rome, in which a worker died, aroused particular indignation, arguing that “as long as the Italian government continues to spend its taxpayers’ money uselessly” on Ukraine, “Italy will all collapse, from the economy to the towers”.
Mattarella in the sights of the Kremlin
The President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella was included in a list of “Russophobes” by the Kremlin in July 2025, and the year before it had been the turn of ministers Antonio Tajani and Guido Crosetto.
The spokeswoman for Moscow’s Foreign Ministry had defined Colle’s words on February 5 as “blasphemous”, when the head of state had compared Moscow’s “war of conquest” attitude in Ukraine to that of the Third Reich. Zakharova had even chanted “Bella Ciao” on social media after learning of a petition promoted by a pro-Russian Italian journalist against Colle.
Rhetorical escalation and international tensions
When Mattarella then defined Moscow at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial as “promoter of a renewed and dangerous nuclear narrative”, the official spoke of “lies and disinformation”.
But it was the former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev who said in 2024 «we are not bluffing on nuclear power», and Putin himself threatened the use of «limited» nuclear weapons by developing “intermediate range missiles” capable of hitting European capitals. Rome included. «Outrage» instead arrived from Russia in October 2024 for the attitude of the Italian authorities, judged «Russophobic» after having denied visas to the tsar’s delegation which was to participate in the 75th International Astronautical Congress in Milan the year before, Rome had been accused of “covering up the Ukrainian neo-Nazis” for having allowed the organization of a photographic exhibition dedicated to the Azov battalion.