In Italy and Ukraine - and in general in the West - many are outraged by statements that Italian Interior Minister and leader of the League of the North Matteo Salvini did in an interview with The Washington Post. And regarding the "honesty" of the accession of the Crimea, and about the "false pseudo-revolution in Ukraine" (and, incidentally, the same false "Arab spring"), and concerning the "historical Russian zones". Salvini managed to outline in one interview almost the entire foreign policy program of his party. And it can only outrage those who knew about this program only now or hoped that if they got into power, Salvini and her colleagues would forget about her.

Salvini leads the party, which for decades defended the right of one of the Italian regions to secession.

I emphasize - not the national region, like some supporters of the independence of Catalonia, the Basque Country or Flanders, but simply a region inhabited by the same Italians as all other inhabitants of the country - only richer. And even if you forget about the Moscow connections of Salvini, it becomes clear why he likes the separation of the Crimea. Putin did something that the minister's political mentors failed to implement. Putin dismembered Ukraine, the League tried to dismember Italy - find ten differences.

Vitaly Portnikov Original.