ROME, July 30. /TASS/. Italian Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Antonio Tajani has summoned Russia’s ambassador to Rome, Alexey Paramonov, to the Foreign Ministry. According to a statement by the Italian Foreign Ministry, this is due to "the listing of President Sergio Mattarella and other officials of the Italian Republic among Russophobes."
"Minister Tajani views the inclusion of the head of state on this list as a provocation against the country and the Italian people and expresses his institutional and personal solidarity with President Mattarella," the statement reads.
Earlier, a selection of examples of ‘hate speech’ targeting Russia and Russophobic statements by politicians and public figures abroad was published on the website of the Russian Foreign Ministry.
The publication dated July 24, which has only recently garnered attention from the Italian media, features statements by Western politicians and representatives of the Kiev regime in 2024 and 2025. Notably, it references Italian President Sergio Mattarella's speech at the University of Marseille in 2025, during which he made a highly controversial comparison between Russia and the Third Reich. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova swiftly condemned this remark, describing it as offensive, outrageous, and outright false - a " blasphemous fabrication."
