Russian state television presenter Vladimir Solovyov, the Kremlin’s most prominent propaganda voice, launched a foul-mouthed attack on Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on live television on Tuesday, prompting Italy to summon the Russian ambassador in formal protest.
During an episode of his show Polnyj Kontakt (Full Contact), Solovyov spoke vulgarly in Italian, calling the premier a “fascist, a certified idiot, a bad woman” and referring to her as “PuttaMeloni”. The tirade combined personal abuse with political accusation. “A disgrace to the human race,” he said. “Betrayal is her middle name: she betrayed Trump, to whom she had previously sworn allegiance.”
The insults arrived just days after Meloni’s meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Rome, in which she reaffirmed Italy’s support for Ukraine and announced cooperation in the field of drone production.
Italy’s response was swift. Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani announced on X that he had summoned Russian Ambassador Aleksey Paramonov to the Foreign Ministry to register a formal protest. “The gravely offensive declarations of presenter Vladimir Solovyov on Russian television regarding the President of the Council Giorgia Meloni are unacceptable,” Tajani wrote, expressing his full solidarity with the premier. Across Italy’s political spectrum, condemnation was unusual in its unanimity as parties that rarely agree on anything united to denounce the attack.
Who is Solovyov?
Vladimir Solovyov has become the embodiment of Russian state propaganda. He is on air for hours every day on television, radio and social media, justifying Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, praising Vladimir Putin, threatening the West with nuclear destruction, and calling for dissidents to be jailed. Although he previously enjoyed the reputation of an independent journalist, in 2013 he described Crimea as “lawfully belonging to Ukraine”, he reversed course entirely following Russia’s illegal occupation of the peninsula in 2014, declaring “Crimea and Sevastopol are once again a part of Russia.”
The EU and UK have both sanctioned Solovyov for undermining Ukraine’s territorial integrity and sovereignty. YouTube blocked his channels for violating its rules on incitement to violence, after content on his programmes encouraged bombing civilian targets in Kyiv. In 2022, Putin personally decorated him with the Order “For Merit to the Fatherland.”
The Italy connection adds a layer of brazen hypocrisy that has not been lost on observers. Even as Solovyov tirelessly demonises Western values, he owns luxury villas in Italy and holds permanent residency there. Five of his children also hold Italian residence permits, and three have US citizenship. His EU-sanctioned properties in Italy were seized following the invasion of Ukraine, though he has apparently maintained connections to the country.
Comment: What the tirade reveals
Vladimir Solovyov is not a loose cannon. He is a state instrument, and what he says on Russian television reflects what the Kremlin finds useful to broadcast to its domestic audience. His attack on Meloni was framed almost entirely around her supposed betrayal of Donald Trump. Not her support for Ukraine, not her European policies, but her failure to remain loyal to the American president.
That framing is telling. It suggests Moscow views Trump not merely as a fellow traveller but as a genuine strategic asset — and regards any European leader who distances themselves from Washington as having gone rogue. In Solovyov’s worldview, and likely in the Kremlin’s, the ideal geopolitical arrangement is a divided West in which the United States either looks the other way or actively undermines European solidarity. Meloni, whatever her own political contradictions, has declined to play that role.
The insults themselves will fade. What lingers is the clarity of the signal. When the Kremlin’s chief propagandist calls a European head of government a traitor for supporting Ukraine and maintaining transatlantic ties, it tells you everything you need to know about which side of the line Moscow believes Donald Trump belongs on and what it expects from him.
ItalyNews.Online covers Italian politics, current affairs and international news for an English-speaking audience.
