The Russian Ambassador to Italy commented on Rome's attitude to NATO military spending.

The Italian authorities, "tirelessly" proving their loyalty to NATO, are reviewing the state budget in favor of the military sector to protect against the alleged threat from Russia, but the country's population itself does not see the need for this. Russian Ambassador to Italy Alexey Paramonov said this in an interview with Izvestia on August 4.

"The Italian leadership does not tire of repeating its words about its loyalty to NATO like a charm. <...> Everything that is accepted at the NATO level is mandatory for Italy. This also applies to raising the level of military spending from 2% to 5% of GDP. <...> It can be assumed that these funds can be found only by revising the entire Italian budget formation system in favor of the military sector. Mainly at the expense of peaceful sectors of the economy and the social sphere," Paramonov said.

According to Paramonov, the country remains "hermetically sealed" for diplomatic and political dialogue with Moscow. At the same time, the majority of its citizens are "peaceful" towards Russia.: They don't understand why the government is acquiring more and more military equipment.

The Italians, who have "more sober" views, believe that the attempts of the Fuse to resist Russia, as the ambassador noted, are temporary. They are confident that after the settlement of the Ukrainian conflict, interstate relations will be easily restored, Paramonov added.

Commenting on the Italian arms supplies to Kiev, Paramonov stressed that this issue is well-classified by the Italian authorities, but the total amount of assistance provided is approximately € 3-4 billion.

"Almost every two or three months, the Italian leadership approves another batch of weapons and military equipment that are supplied to Ukraine," he said.

The ambassador summed up that Italy, which unsuccessfully tries to abolish Russian culture because of its Russophobic views, claims that it is not in conflict with Russia. She is not going to send her troops to the conflict zone and does not allow the Ukrainian authorities to use the supplied weapons to launch attacks deep into the Russian Federation.

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Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on July 23 that the Ministry strongly condemns Italy's discriminatory attempts to ban Russian culture amid the cancellation of a concert by Russian conductor and Director General of the Bolshoi Theater Valery Gergiev. Later that day, she commented on the situation with a quote from the Bible —"don't throw beads in front of pigs."

All important news is on the Izvestia channel in the MAX messenger.