Silvio Berlusconi says Putin sent him 20 bottles of vodka and a “very sweet letter” on his birthday last month

Putin declares martial law in annexed Ukrainian territories 2:58 (CNN) — Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said Russian President Vladimir Putin sent him 20 bottles of vodka and a “very sweet letter” in his birthday last month, according to audio published this week by the Italian news agency LaPresse. “I sent him bottles of Lambrusco (Italian sparkling wine) and an equally sweet letter,” Berlusconi is heard saying. The 86-year-old former Italian leader also says he has “restored relations with President Putin,” according to LaPresse’s audio. He goes on to brag that Putin called him “the first of five true friends of his” of him. A party spokesman denied that Berlusconi was in contact with Putin, saying he had told MPs “an old story referring to an episode from many years ago.” Berlusconi’s comments were secretly recorded during a meeting of his Forza Italia party in the Parliamentary Chamber on Tuesday, his office confirmed to CNN on Thursday, while he confirmed the authenticity of the released audio clips. by LaPresse. Berlusconi, who will form part of the new Italian coalition government, is heard saying that Putin “was against any initiative” of war against Ukraine. In secretly recorded audio clips released by LaPresse, the Italian politician can be heard talking to members of his party about what he believes led to the war in Ukraine: “In 2014 in Minsk, Belarus, a an agreement between Ukraine and the two newly formed republics of Donbas, a peace agreement so that no one attacks each other. Ukraine scraps this treaty a year later and begins to attack the borders of the two republics. Both republics suffered losses between the military “. Possible scenarios for Russia if it loses the war in Ukraine 3:48 “Desperate, the two republics …sent a delegation to Moscow …and finally managed to talk to Putin. They tell him: ‘Vladimir, we don’t know what to do, you ( you have) to defend us,'” Berlusconi said. “(Putin) opposes any initiative (to attack Ukraine), resists. (After) facing strong pressure from all over Russia, he decided to invent a special operation: (Russian) troops enter Ukraine, arrive in Kyiv in a week, they overthrow the incumbent government, Zelensky, etc., and establish a government already elected by the Ukrainian minority of good people and common sense, and a week for the troops to return to Russia.” In the recording, Berlusconi is then heard saying: “He (Putin) entered Ukraine and encountered an unexpected and unpredictable situation of resistance from the Ukrainians, who started receiving money and weapons from the West on the third day (of the war. ) And the war, instead of being a two-week operation, has turned into a two-century war. So this is the situation of the war in Ukraine.” In LaPresse’s audio, Berlusconi is also heard saying: “I don’t see how Putin and Zelensky can sit at a mediation table. Because there is no possible way.” Berlusconi defended his comments in an interview with the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera on Thursday. “Everything was taken out of context. It was spread without knowing the global meaning of my words. With the sole aim of spreading misinformation and lies,” he told the Italian newspaper. “I do not deny my past friendship with Vladimir Putin, which brought important results, achieved in full agreement with our Western allies… But today the circumstances have changed,” he said. The comments he made were “in the cosmos of larger reasoning.” A reasoning that ends with the condemnation of the Russian invasion and with the hope of a negotiated solution that puts an end to this massacre and protects the rights of the Ukrainian people,” Berlusconi continued.