Italy indignant at Berlusconi’s visit to Minsk: he performs customs clearance of dictators

The Italian Prime Minister has become the first western leader to visit Belarus for the last 15 years, Gianluca Luzi writes in his article published by La Republika.

Since Alyaksandr Lukashenka came to power in 1994, the relations between Minsk and Europe have become so bad that Lukashenka has been banned from entering the EU, the author of the article writes. By his visit, ended with dinner, Berlusconi performed customs clearance of the Belarusian ruler and even made a compliment to him: “People love you, the election results prove this”. Lukashenka gained 82.6% of the votes at the elections, recognized undemocratic by the OSCE and US. Now Europe has started another policy towards Minsk, and the Italian PM offered his candidature as a mediator.

It’s not strange that Lukashenka, dubbed the last dictator of Europe by Condoleezza Rice, accepted Berlusconi with great honour called him a “great friend, the world and global leader”. The Belarusian ruler handed over four huge files with archive documents, including KGB archives, shedding light on relations between the Italian and Soviet communist parties and the fate of Italian prisoners of war who were captured in Belarus during and after the WWII and victims of Stalin’s purges. Lukashenka stressed Minsk was ready to give other documents if the Italian government was interested in that.

Silvio Berlusconi thanked Lukashenka for solving the problem of adoption of Belarusian children, victims of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, by Italian families: “Thank you for the contribution you made for these dreams to come true.”

However, neither the Belarusian opposition liked the praises to the Minsk ruler, nor Italian politicians supported the visit. Bonino, the Vice Presidents of the Senate, called these abroad trips “mysterious” and noted the PM was performing “customs clearance of dictators” instead of dealing with Iranian and Afghan cases. Member of the Italian parliament Casini insists that the prime minister should told the parliament about his trip to Minsk.