The Italian Foreign Ministry summoned the Russian ambassador over comments made by Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova about the partial collapse of a medieval tower in Rome, Italian media reported Tuesday.
“As long as the Italian government continues to waste its taxpayers’ money [on Kyiv], Italy will collapse completely: from its economy to its towers,” Zakharova had said after the Torre dei Conti, a 13th-century tower in Rome that was used by Pope Innocent III, suffered a partial collapse on Monday while undergoing restoration work.
The collapse seriously injured one person, while another was trapped underneath the rubble for nearly 11 hours. That worker passed away shortly after being extracted by rescue workers and sent to the hospital.
Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani called Zakharova’s statement “vulgar to say the least.”
“When there is a tragedy, you cannot speculate on people who are still under the rubble and on injured workers,” said Tajani. “We have never done so. When there has been a tragedy affecting the Russian Federation, we have always shown solidarity. These statements are shameful and unacceptable in a civilized country.”
Zakharova had previously called Italy “the country where fascism originated” and accused Rome and its allies of “pumping the terrorist Kyiv neo-Nazi regime in Ukraine with modern lethal weaponry” after Italian President Sergio Mattarella compared Russia to the Third Reich in February.