ROME 

Italy’s Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani on Wednesday summoned Russia's ambassador to Rome after President Sergio Mattarella and other Italian officials were included on a list of alleged "Russophobes" compiled by Moscow. 

Tajani said he considered the inclusion of Italy’s head of state on this list “a provocation to the Republic and the Italian people,” offering his institutional and personal solidarity to President Mattarella, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Premier Giorgia Meloni – who has been a staunch supporter of Ukraine since the Russian war launched more than three years ago – also blasted Moscow’s list, calling it an “unacceptable provocation.”

“Italy has firmly chosen to stand alongside Ukraine in the face of the brutal war of aggression unleashed by Russia three years ago, and continues to guarantee its support to the Ukrainian people in their heroic resistance,” Meloni said in a separate statement.

“The (Russian) Ministry of Foreign Affairs' publication of a list of alleged ‘Russophobes,’ accused of ‘inciting hatred’ against Russia, is nothing more than yet another propaganda operation, aimed at diverting attention from Moscow's grave responsibilities,” the Italian premier added.

Meloni extended her solidarity to Tajani and Defense Minister Guido Crosetto, also targeted with the same accusation. Other European leaders, including Germany’s Chancellor Friedrich Merz, are also on the list.

Relations between Rome and Moscow – already complicated by the Ukrainian war – have further deteriorated recently, after Italy cancelled a concert last week of a pro-Kremlin director accused of spreading propaganda.

The list – published by the Russian Foreign Ministry on its website and presented as a collection of examples of "hate speech" against Russia -- quoted a sentence by Mattarella during a speech at the University of Marseille in early February. In the speech, the Italian president drew a parallel between the German Third Reich's wars of conquest and the Russian attack on Ukraine.

At the time, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova condemned Mattarella's remarks as "blasphemous inventions.”