Ravenna, Italy
Silvio Berlusconi believes that he alone can entice his old friend Vladimir Putin to the negotiating table and intends to give it a go before Christmas. The 86-year-old media tycoon and former Italian prime minister wants a peace deal, mediated by him, to be his political swansong. His private jet is already on standby.
Last month, he said that Putin had sent him 20 bottles of vodka for his birthday and ‘a very sweet letter’
Internationally, the timing could not be better. Russia has suffered another military humiliation by abandoning the key city of Kherson and the Biden administration is reportedly telling Volodymyr Zelensky to think seriously about peace. Vittorio Sgarbi, Berlusconi’s confidant and now undersecretary for culture in Giorgia Meloni’s new government, has told me that Berlusconi thinks of himself as the only possible broker.
‘Berlusconi loves the beau geste,’ he said. ‘And this is the gesture he has in mind.
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