During a gathering with people in Japan who had survived dropping atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, president Mattarella stated that Russia had become “a promoter of renewed and dangerous atomic narrative”. In addition, he stressed that Russia was blocking the operation of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of atomic Weapons, withdrew from ratification of the Treaty on the full Prohibition of atomic Trials and threatened Ukraine.
According to the Italian president, Russia "implants an unacceptable thought that atomic weapons can become a average tool in conflict management".
In consequence to these words, Russian MFA spokeswoman Maria Zacharova accused the Italian president of "a lie and a lie".
Vice Prime Minister Tajani, who was at the gathering of the Heads of G7 diplomacy in Canada, denounced Russia's "verbal attack" against Mattarelli and added that the president is "a man of peace and a symbol of national and European unity".
Secretary-General of the Ministry of abroad Affairs Riccardo Guariglia received an order from the chief of diplomacy to summon the Russian ambassador.
The Russian MFA had already attacked the president of Italy, accusing him of "blasphemous inventions" erstwhile he compared Russia's current actions to the 3rd Reich policy in Marseille.
