Russian dictator Vladimir Putin killed two deer while hunting, personally cut out the heart of the dead animal with a knife and offered it to Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi to eat, Fabrizio Cicchito, a former member of the Italian Senate, told the Italian newspaper “Corriere della Sera” in an interview.
He represented Berlusconi’s “Forward Italy” party in the upper house of the Italian parliament.
According to Chichito, he was told about Putin’s cruelty by the former prime minister himself, who was made to question the human qualities of the Russian president by this hunt.
“Vladimir showed me a ruthless character that I had never imagined before,” Chichito quoted Berlusconi as saying.
The hunt took place in 2013 in Russia, where Berlusconi was on vacation with Putin at his summer house.
“Putin suggested we go hunting. As we were walking through the snow, he saw two deer. After shooting both, he looked at me with satisfaction and said: ‘Today I will offer you a great meal.'” Knife in hand, he walked down the slope to get closer animals. Then he took out the heart from one of them. A man from his entourage pulled out a wooden tray and put a piece of bleeding meat on it,” said Berlusconi.
The newspaper “La Stampa” reported on winter hunting in Putin’s summer house already in 2013 in an article about the relationship between Putin and Berlusconi, but did not indicate the sources of the information. Chichito confirmed that Berlusconi told him personally about the hunt.
Evaluating the Russian leader, the former member of the Italian Senate said that “Putin was the first to understand that through the Internet you can make politics, penetrate and manipulate the system of liberal democracies, which he despises. Through the Internet, he supported Brexit, the Catalan separatist referendum , Donald Trump’s election campaign. He has always tried to destabilize the West. But Berlusconi kept it quiet.”
Putin and Berlusconi had a friendly relationship and often communicated informally. Berlusconi condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, but claimed to have restored relations with Putin a few months later. Putin expressed his condolences on the death of the Italian politician in 2023.
