Speaking with Russian President Vladimir Putin is a “waste of time,” says Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi.
Following the discovery of mass graves in Bucharest, Draghi admitted that he had begun to lose faith in the discussions with Moscow.
As a last warning, he pointed out that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s purpose has never been “the search for peace.”
In a statement released on Sunday, Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi underlined his dissatisfaction with Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying he is beginning to believe it is “simply a waste of time” to talk with his counterpart in Moscow over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
In an interview with Italian newspaper Il Corriere della Sera, Draghi stated that “I am beginning to believe that those individuals are correct when they say: ‘It is pointless to talk to him, it is just a waste of time.”
Draghi remarked about a phone contact he had with Russian President Vladimir Putin on March 30th, during which the Russian leader addressed the prospect of Italy purchasing Russian gas in rubles. According to reports, Russia supplies 40 percent of the country’s natural gas needs.
According to the prime minister, both parties have agreed to meet again within the next several days.
“Then there was the horror of Bucha,” Draghi said, referring to a Kyiv suburb where officials discovered mass graves of civilians after Russian forces withdrew from the area. “Then there was the horror of Bucha,” Draghi said.
The prime minister said he believed French President Emmanuel Macron, who has attempted to position himself at the forefront of the EU’s negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin, was “right to try every possible avenue of dialogue.” Macron has attempted to position himself at the forefront of the EU’s negotiations with Putin.
The ECB president went on to say, “But I have the notion that the tragedy of war with all its bloodshed, with what they did to children and women, is absolutely independent of the words and phone calls that are made.”
“Up to this point, Putin’s purpose has not been the search for peace, but rather the attempt to exterminate the Ukrainian resistance, conquer the nation, and hand it over to a sympathetic government,” the prime minister continued.
The Italian prime minister responded to the question of whether he agreed with President Joe Biden’s classification of the Bucha massacre as “war crimes” by saying: “What do we want to describe Bucha’s horror if not war crimes?”
The Italian prime minister, on the other hand, stated that terminology such as “genocide” and “war crimes” had “a precise legal meaning.”
It’ll take time and effort to figure out which terms best describe the inhumane deeds of the Russian army, Draghi added.
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Mr. Draghi, a former chief of the European Central Bank, was chosen prime minister in February 2021, after his predecessor, Giuseppe Conte, resigned amid a pandemic of the COVID-19 virus and a severe economic crisis a year earlier.
In recent weeks, Draghi has attempted to diversify Italy’s gas supplies through agreements with African countries, and he has urged European countries to join together and set a price restriction on Russian natural gas.
Il Corriere della Sera said that he said, “The market power that the European Union possesses in relation to Moscow is a weapon that should be deployed.” “A cap on the price of natural gas affects the amount of funding we provide to Russia on a daily basis.”
