Russian President Vladimir Putin and former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi were on vacation together in 2013, POLITICO reports citing an Italian politician in an interview published by the daily Corriere della Sera. According to the Italian politician, Putin allegedly cut out the heart of a deer and gave it to Silvio Berlusconi as a gift.
The incident took place in 2013 when the Russian president took Berlusconi on a hunting trip while the two were holidaying together in Russia, revealed Fabrizio Cicchitto, a former senator from Berlusconi’s Forza Italia party.
“Vladimir showed me a violent nature that I did not imagine in such a good and rational man,” Cicchitto recalls Berlusconi telling him immediately after returning from Russia.
According to Cicchitto, Berlusconi accepted Putin’s offer to go hunting, even though he would never touch a rifle in his life. Once in the forest, the Russian president handed Berlusconi a rifle and they walked together through the snow.
When Putin spotted two deer, he urged Berlusconi to take aim. “That’s yours. Shoot,” Putin told Berlusconi, according to Cicchitto. When the Italian refused, Putin shot both deer and gave him a satisfied look.
Putin then walked down the slope, holding a knife. He butchered the animal and removed its heart. He then had a man in his entourage give Berlusconi a wooden tray on which he placed the piece of bleeding meat, saying it would be an exceptional meal.
Berlusconi then hid behind a tree to vomit.
The former prime minister, however, defended his friend. “Maybe it’s just a habit of hunters,” Cicchitto remembers Berlusconi saying.
In fact, Berlusconi has always defended Putin even after his full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and the Russian president described the media mogul-turned-politician as a “true friend” after he died last June.
Tags: POLITICO Episode Putin shot deer heart gave Berlusconi wooden tray Italian leader allegedly confessed shock Russian dictator caused
