Franco Frattini, Chairman of the State Council of Italy, said in an interview with RIA Novosti that he absolutely does not believe in statements about a possible Russian “attack” on the territory of Ukraine.
“Everyone says that Russia wants to invade Ukraine. I don’t think it wants to invade Ukraine, but some calming signals would be needed. Otherwise, we will be back to the Cold War years, when everyone deployed their troops, and then, fortunately, no one dropped the bomb. But if an incident occurs, for example, at the border, something dangerous can happen,” the politician said.
According to Frattini, Russia would not have received any benefit in the event of such a development of events. The Italian politician stressed that Moscow expresses its exceptional interest in dialogue with Western countries, since “cooperation in the energy sector partly makes such a dialogue obligatory.”
“I don’t think [Russian President Vladimir] Putin is thinking about a military invasion of Ukraine. I think that in order to resolve this crisis and for everyone, as they say, to save their face, everyone needs to give a signal for dialogue. Putin sent such messages of dialogue,” the politician summed up.
The official representative of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Maria Zakharova, said earlier that negotiations between Russia, the North Atlantic Alliance and the United States on the provision of security guarantees are at the final stage and the countries will soon provide a final answer.