Fabrizio Tassinari
@Fatassinari
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Executive Director @STGEUI . Fellow @BerggruenInst . Comitato direttivo @iaionline . Board @EMIF_fund . Dad. Latest book: PURSUIT OF GOVERNANCE. Views my own.
Somewhere North
Joined March 2012
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Someone I profoundly admire, the British diplomat and author Robert Cooper, wrote a raving longread review of my book, now out in French for
@Grand_Continent
. I can retire a happy man now.
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“The price we pay is measured in currency.
They price they pay is measured in lives lost every day.
So we should stop complaining and step up and provide support.”
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Scholz’s indignation is absolutely righteous.
What a difference a year makes.
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Biggest Russian attack on Ukraine since the start of the war. 100 missiles in one night.
Hard to justify our fatigue in the face of so much suffering.
Stoltenberg’s words should be blasted outside every chancellery in Europe.
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For weeks, supposed realists wanna-be Mearsheimers have said that Ukraine just needed to lay down arms and all will be well.
After
#Bucha
, I urge media, especially in countries like Italy, not to give more exposure to this excruciatingly cynical argument.
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#TracyChapman
performing “Fast Car” yesterday for the first time in 15 years is hands down the best thing you’ll see today. Soothing.
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Scholz and Draghi gave major interviews less than 1w apart to
@corriere
&
@derspiegel
.
Contexts differ, deliverables may not be radically apart. But in a war, narratives matter.
Instructive to compare answers on ia: arming Ukr, energy dependence, and econ fallout of war. 1/
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Launching tomorrow, a new non-stop high-speed train connection between Rome and Milan.
Ca 565 km in 2h 45 mins.
Italians tend to take its
@LeFrecce
for granted. But this is world-class.
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This is painfully disingenuous.
We need to be patient with Russia but the US should stop incentivising war…
If this is what non-aligned looks like, it’s a non-starter.
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On the war’s economic fallout:
Scholz: “we want to avoid a dramatic econ crisis, the loss of millions of jobs and of factories that would never open again.”
Draghi: “Peace is worth making sacrifices…. Peace is the most important value, irrespective of the sacrifice.” /END
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“In the documents the Russians often change everything, like name and date of birth and place of birth”, it will become increasingly hard to find them”
Of all the abominations, this remains the most chilling crime. Genocidal for intents and purposes.
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In yesterday’s Stations of the cross, Pope had a Ukr boy who escaped Mariupol next to a Rus one who lost brother in combat. Like last yr he had a Rus and a Ukr hold the cross.
Aggressor and victim. Amoral equivalence.
Respectfully: he should just stay the hell out of it.
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Summer is again high season for Russian tourists in Italy.
Obscenely wealthy, violently raucous, and oblivious to any standard of decent civilised behaviour.
In this report from Milan’s shopping streets they complain about… Ukrainian immigrants.
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Here we go again. “The war started by the decisions made by two countries.” Honest brokers are called that for a reason.
This isn’t honest and therefore Lula’s proposal is dead on arrival.
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No logical explanation as to why a die-hard fan of
@rickygervais
such as myself would wait a decade to watch Derek.
Simply put: it reconciles you with humankind. An absolute jewel of a series and a sort of existential prequel to Afterlife. Must watch.
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On arming Ukr:
Scholz: “Bundeswehr’s options… are largely exhausted… We are now helping the Ukr government to procure arms… [as] agreed to by our allies.”
Draghi: “we need to help Ukr directly... Not doing would equal to tell them: surrender, accept slavery and submission” 2/
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First major
@Corriere
interview to Draghi since Feb 21.
He doesn’t mince words on ia arming Ukraine, sanctions, dialogue with Putin, and peace.
Deserves to be translated in English. Till that happens, a few highlights: 1/
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On energy dependence:
S: “Problem is not that there are 2,3, or 4 pipelines – it’s that they all come from Ru... we should have diversified imports much earlier.“
D: “Econ dependence must not become pol subjection. We must diversify energy sources & find new suppliers.” 3/
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The kindest person in the room is often the smartest.
This from the Illinois governor JB Pritzker has so many applications and might just make your day. Must watch.
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No one in Europe should begin planning a post-war relation with Russia before having severed all contacts with and illusions about the present one.
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Genuinely underwhelmed by this.
Forget the questionable interpretation and the urge to protect one’s legacy at all costs.
But to say that 2014 was needed for Ukraine to build up muscles “civically”is incorrect, disingenuous and frankly quite cruel.
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Generally don’t like to go ad personam, but stuff like this just flies in the face of all decency. Why can’t we extend to EU citizens on Putin’s payroll the same assets freeze applying to Russian olygarchs.
@MaduroPoiares
even made a mini-legal analysis here on its feasibility.
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If you have to arrive to the airport 4h in advance for a 2h flight, train travel will soon become the default option for any trip in continental Europe 12h or under.
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Gas imports from Russia to Italy down to 0 this week.
Can’t think of a more suitable farewell gift from Draghi.
🇮🇹🇷🇺 Arrivederci Mosca.
Negli ultimi sette giorni, l'Italia ha importato ZERO metri cubi di gas da Gazprom, e dunque dalla Russia.
Non succedeva dal 1974.
Una giornata storica.
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On arming Ukraine:
“we need to help the Ukrainians directly... Not doing would equal to tell them: surrender, accept slavery and submission—which is contrary to European values of solidarity. We need to enable Ukrainians to defend themselves” 2/
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Remarkable 1986 footage where the late Giorgio
#Napolitano
, then a Communist party leader at the height of the Cold War, makes amends and condemns Soviet interventions in Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Poland.
Wished that today’s Russia sympathisers had the same moral clarity. RIP
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The Italian media debate on the Ukraine war is flawed a grave misconception:
confusing pluralism with equal treatment of all opinions.
Bad for democracy; really bad in wartime.
Read my and
@MaduroPoiares
op-ed for
@POLITICOEurope
.
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Post-Putin Russia is one of the “known unknowns” holding back some in the West from pursuing a decisive victory of Ukraine.
@Kasparov63
and
@mbk_center
lay out a compelling blueprint for what that Russia could (and should) look like.
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I don’t approve what Meloni is doing in areas such as migration and civil rights
But her 3 questions in the end display a piercing moral and strategic clarity about the conditions for peace: Troops withdrawal; territorial integrity and international law.
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“Pacifism is honourable, but it does not lead to good. It only cements the dominance of the wicked, the inhuman and the criminal"
Read this from former German President
#Gauck
a couple of times and let it sink in.
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One of Italy’s most prominent journalists is “neutral” and “tired” of the war. “May the strongest win as long as they hurry up.”
Cynicism or cheap provocation arent the main problem.
It’s that these people are a litmus test of society and the real danger is a slide toward apathy
Mi hanno chiesto se faccio il tifo per la Russia e l’Ucraina. Ma non sono né russo né ucraino. Quindi sono neutrale. Vinca il più forte ma faccia in fretta perché siamo stanchi.@
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As legendary Italian journo Indro Montanelli who reported from the Winter War front in Finland once put it:
“With the Russians, no negotiation is possible other than power struggle. He who lays down is lost. Peace for the Russians means submission and slavery”
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On dialogue with Putin:
“I begin to think that those who say talking to him is pointless and a waste of time are right… I have the impression that the horror of war… what they are doing to children and women, is completely independent from words and phone calls” 4/
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This Italian is one of the “international observers” in Donetsk certifying the validity of sham referenda.
He describes door-to-door searches as “mobile polling stations” convenient esp for the elderly.
Can’t make this up. Not even in a parody.
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On sanctions:
“Even the Russians admit that they can’t pay bc a significant part of their currency reserves is frozen… Europe continues to fund Russia buying its oil and has. To put a cap on the price of Russian gas, as proposed by Italy, is a way to strengthen the sanctions” 5/
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On genocide and war crimes:
“There will be time and place to verify which words are more appropriate for the inhuman acts of the Russian army. That being said, we have to recognise that before and after the invasion, the U.S. intelligence had the most accurate information” 3/
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On peace and air conditioning
“I wanted to send 2 messages that I consider important. First simbolic, peace is worth making sacrifices. Second a factual one: the sacrifice in this case is limited. Peace is the most important value, irrespective of the sacrifice.” /END
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As a young researcher I was once tasked to take minutes for a
@JoeBiden
speech in Venice. Afterwards he gave me his manuscript which i cherish (note marks for pause/emphasis).
Often go back to it & wonder where we’d be today without this Cold Warrior so deeply attached to Europe
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Out now: our new
@EDMO_EUI
fact-checking report on Lavrov’s claims on live Italian TV.
Revolting propaganda in the face of so much human suffering.
Underscores how shameful the interviewer did not challenge him on ANY of it.
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“What Minister Lavrov said is aberrant…The part about Hitler obscene… But it was not an interview, it was a rally…
We should ask ourselves if it’s acceptable to have someone interviewed for a longer period without questions. It’s not that great”
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Peace and this person don’t belong in the same sentence. Matvienko is on sanction lists since 2014. If Putin has had one loyal enabler, it is her.
Russia desperately needs every chance to show it’s not isolated and this kind of amoral equivalence is really unhelpful.
Recebi a presidenta do Conselho da Federação Russa, Valentina Matvienko, chefe da delegação do país. Agradeci os cumprimentos de Putin trazidos por ela e expressei o desejo do Brasil pela paz e que as partes encontrem um ponto comum para o fim do conflito.
📸:
@ricardostuckert
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A little pet project of mine is that
@berlinairport
finally removes this poster of two unrepentant Putin apologists and partners in crime (literally). Makes me nauseous whenever I pass by.
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And just like that: Denmark’s Finance Minister goes on paternity leave for over two months.
The sort of thing one takes for granted up North.
Unthinkable at so many levels just a few hundred km away.
Danes call themselves pioneers for a reason.
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Zelensky in Rome today to meet the Pope about his “peace initiative.”
Francis has so far consistently pushed for equivalence btw victim and aggressor.
Much respect to Zelensky for leaving no stone unturned in the quest for just peace.
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From the statesman that brought you “whatever it takes”…
“There is no alternative… to ensuring that Ukraine wins the war.”
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Have deep admiration for Scandinavia. Even wrote a book about what I learned working there at crossroad of foreign policy & research.
As Swe & Fin join NATO, one overarching feeling is that the rest of us who are already in it must have gotten something right after all.
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Having experienced this, I should add that PhD students in 🇩🇰 don’t get grants but proper salaries (incl pension contributions etc).
When you see PhDs struggling across Europe, you realize how crucial this is to give expertise proper recognition.
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The Ukraine war has triggered major disruption in Italy in 3 key respects:
- Russia policy - political consensus - disinformation
Not all is going to last; not all is good. But overall striking. A short thread: 1/
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Of all the things that were worth of defending and nurturing.
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Rome Fiumicino airport has been voted Europe’s best airport for 4 of the past 5 years. Here’s also why.
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For all the mess that new twitter has created, I find this fact-checking feature effective and thought-through.
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This is amazing.
I’m old enough to remember when senior European policy makers compared Ukraine’s EU membership to the U.S. taking in Mexico.
It is really true that the EU is forged in crises.
Ukraine is one of us and we want them in EU, Ursula von der Leyen tells Euronews
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“There is nothing that provokes Vladimir Putin more than weakness”
McCain was as clear-eyed in 2014 as many still aren’t today.
He’s sorely missed.
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Italy has been on the receiving end of this sort of blackmailing at least since Gaddafis time.
Draghi is on record for saying that talking to Putin is pointless. He mustn’t cave in.
Yet again, the same pattern is repeated. Russia creates a problem and then generously offers to solve it. Some naive people call it de-escalation.
Remarkable that Putin told it to Draghi.Italy might face waves of migrants via Mediterranean if there's hunger in Africa,Middle East
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Italian polemist picks dubious soccer metaphor to tell Ukraine’s FM they are losing 5-0 to Russia (Crimea + 4 Donbass oblasts).
@DmytroKuleba
: remember 2005 CL final Milan-Liverpool: Milan was winning 3-0 in the first half and ended up losing [5-6].
Chapeau.
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Criticism of this inanity has rightly focused on claiming Hamas and Hezbollah as part of the global left.
But what I also find baffling is how progressives qualify them as social movements.
The equivalent (or worse) of saying that sicilian mafia is a welfare org in south Italy.
Intellectual insanity
Judith Butler: "Hamas and Hezbollah are social movements that are progressive and are part of the Global Left"
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Onward.
Italy has frozen Russian oligarchs' assets worth $2.5 billion | Reuters
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Just learned that Roberto Benigni turns 70 today.
Whenever I feel a little blue, this clip of his Oscar win never fails to cheer me up.
Thanks for that, and for your genius. La vita è bella, indeed.
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Another turning point. Denmark to hold referendum on EU defence opt out on June 1st.
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This is moral bankrupcy. It says more Italy’s Russia bias than 100 articles. CGIL has 5 million members. They should feel ashamed to be represented in this way.
The CGIL trade union concludes its annual congress in Bologna by playing the anthem of the USSR. Jan 13, 2023
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“Macron with a white shirt and high collar. Draghi with a pullover because of the air-conditioning. Scholz with jeans and a short-sleeve black shirt that is out of fashion”
Who needs in-depth policy analysis, when you can have this reporting.
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Russian pipe dream of being a civilisational state a whole lot harder when the best they can do is to introduce an IKEA copycat. With 🇺🇦 colours incidentally. Way to go.
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Not every day that the guy you’ve shared an office with for the past 3 years becomes President of his country.
So happy and proud of my friend.
You are going to make a great Prez
@alexstubb
🇫🇮
I work with this guy 24/7. He is not only cool, but a bloody good executive director. Fortunate to be on the same team. We work hard and play hard, and have fun while doing it. No complaints.
@Fatassinari
@STGEUI
@EUI_EU
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This is brilliant. Taking Italy as reference helps Zelensky to bring home a crucial point.
If you care for your way of life, you should be prepared to defend it.
If you justify Russia, you might as well drive an old
#Lada
.
As Putin is committing genocide, rapes, and tortures of Ukrainians, President Zelenskyy's ability to respond to such an asinine question from an Italian journalist in a civil manner is commendable. A true leader. ✊
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Learned from journalist
@francescocosta
to understand the surreal Italian practice of “virgolettato” (citation).
In this explainer, Russia’s use of tactical nukes is said “improbable” in the subtitle.
You go to the article, the quotes disappear and there is no source.
🔴 L’utilizzo di una bomba atomica tattica da parte della Russia di Putin, in Ucraina, viene ritenuto «poco probabile»: ma gli alleati si preparano
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Vatican didn’t report this part of the Pope’s speech for a reason.
Whenever Francis looks up from a script and ad libs, its either Russophilia or anti-Americanism.
Beats me how anyone could take his peace mediation at face value.
“Never forget your heritage. You are the heirs of great Russia: great Russia of saints, rulers, great Russia of Peter I, Catherine II, that empire - great, enlightened, of great culture and great humanity. Never give up this legacy, you are the heirs of the great Mother Russia"
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I’ve rarely followed an 🇮🇹 PM as closely as I have with Draghi.
He has spoken clearly about our values, acted swiftly leveraging his stature and expertise. He made a difference.
I believe Italians, Europeans and the rule-based international community owe him a debt of gratitude.
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I watched Lavrov’s interview on prime time Italian TV, so you don’t have to.
I just cannot get myself to translate this revolting propaganda.
I would hope an official inquiry can be opened into the journalistic practices of this talkshow.
"Zelensky ebreo? Lo era anche Hitler"
A
#ZonaBianca
Sergej
#Lavrov
, il ministro degli Esteri russo, sull'influenza nazista sul territorio ucraino.
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1st strike for me on mastodon: I’ve been warned for writing in English on an Italian server. Genuinely thought servers were interoperable, I wrote in my “appeal.”
Btw Never heard the phrase “istanza italofona” before. Sounds something from the ministry of linguistic autarky.
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Source:
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Trying to wrap my head around this.
In the middle of Europe’s most severe conflict since WW2, a 150 m Russian “research vessel” is allowed to roam freely for weeks across Denmark to map windmills, gas pipe and cables?
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Italy’s majority party presents a parliamentary motion to recognize Holodomor as genocide.
A very positive sign after Germany’s resolution.
Also: a good occasion to walk the walk, for all those who have so far talked a very ambiguous talk.
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Christmas in Naples.
1h:13 min from Rome. Up to 298 km/h, 29 € return. Arrival ahead of time.
@LeFrecce
can’t stop, won’t stop.
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For italian speakers, it is from about minute 12 of this video (20:30).
It is really quite astonishing even by Italian standards.
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For 2 decades the European mantra was that the EU and Russia were economically interdependent.
The Draghi govt in Italy busted the myth of gas dependence in about 6 months.
Look at the progression from July 22 to Oct 22 alone.
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A lot on your shoulders this past year and it shows
@ZelenskyyUa
.
Your Christmas isn’t peaceful but I wish you and your fellow citizens a victorious new Year.
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@alexstubb
@DefenceFinland
@Puolustusvoimat
@NATO
To argue that a long border with Russia is “potential headache to NATO” comes across as shortsighted at best, disingenuous at worst.
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Gentle warning that watching the otherwise amazing Keri Russell here might prevent you from ever wanting to re-watch “the Americans.”
I don’t write screenplays but I write about int’l politics. The writing in the first ep here was painful.
#TheDiplomat
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Iconic Cafe Moskau in former East Berlin turns off “Moscow” lights from the sign and turns on Ukraine 🇺🇦in the windows instead.
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Expect a flurry of speculations flying around about Italy’s future.
But it’s worth taking a moment to acknowledge the best PM that Italy has had in decades.
A (sympathetic and frustrated) 🧵 on Draghi’s legacy as PM: 1/
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Room with a view at
#Delphi
.
Always have a childlike-wonder to discover that places like this exist in Europe.
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This is excellent, well said
@ClaudMajor
.
"Die
#Ukraine
hat nicht die Wahl zwischen
#Krieg
und Frieden", sagt
@ClaudMajor
, Militärexpertin bei der
@SWP_IntSecurity
in Berlin, bei
#hartaberfair
@DasErste
. "Sie hat de facto die Wahl zwischen Krieg und Vernichtung."
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5 yrs ago today, I landed in Florence on a torrid afternoon to start up
@STGEUI
.
We were 5 then. In September, we’ll approach 250.
As I tell the team: we get to build something like this only once in a lifetime (part motivation/part reassurance)
What. A. Journey. Onward! 🙏
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“Russian buyers in Forte behave like ‘colonisers’…like ‘an elephant walking, there’s no fighting against it”
Last month I got some flak here for a rant after visiting this very town.
This longread expresses that feeling better than I ever could. Do read.
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I respectfully petition Berlin Brandenburg airport to remove this poster of Berlusconi and Schroeder. They have been Europe’s most unrepentant enablers of Putin.
They aren’t elder statesmen that deserve to be celebrated.
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Always baffling to realize that a sizeable minority of the western public opinion has normalised the exact line of this murderous regime.
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Too many “ifs”, “buts” and “whatabouts” in the Italian public debate on motives of Russia’s invasion.
It’d suffice to be unambiguous that this is Putin’s war of choice, not a war of necessity. It is that simple, but apparently not so obvious.
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Romano Prodi’s perfect aphorism on education: “You can’t be wealthy and stupid for more than a generation.”
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Doing this in the middle of a
#G7
Summit is Putin’s criminal and yet archetypal way of calling the West’s bluff. Only deeds and not words can honour the loss of these innocent lives.
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“He acts like our enemies… like all of those we have ever faced combined into a single threat even more insidious than the others.”
This by
@djrothkopf
+ Bernard Schwarz lines up one by one all the reasons why we all in the West must do much more.
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Gazprom drops NS1 stream to about 20% of capacity.
The below is bureaucratese for blackmail.
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Lesser-known Rome tradition. Rose petals from the Pantheon eye on this day of Pentecost.
Why? Roses represented the Holy Spirit to early Christians. And Romans have always had a flair for special effects.
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Veteran Italian anchor Bruno Vespa is known as a bland, middle-of-the-road interviewer. Never too late to be positively surprised.
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Disinformation:
Russia’s influence in Italy is documented. But level of media disinfo goes beyond it. It’s down to a broken TV culture dating back to Berlusconi.
Polls show continued pop support for Ukr. But latest episodes call for vigilance & regulators intervention. END
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This reminds me of a quote by music critic Albert Murray: “We [African-americans] invented the blues. Europeans invented psychoanalysis. You invent what you need.”
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According to
@EU_Eurostat
Italy is 2nd to last in Europe, just before Romania.
Less than 20% of 25-74 yo have a tertiary education. Only little over 20% of males aged 25-34.
What a miserable waste of talent.
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