One of Italy's leading newspapers, Corriere della Sera, has refused to publish an interview with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign ministry told .
The ministry said it had asked Corriere della Sera to conduct an exclusive interview with Lavrov in order to stop the flow of lies and falsehoods in the Italian media in articles about Russia. The publication agreed and submitted lengthy questions for the interview, each of which the Minister gave a comprehensive answer to. However, the text was ultimately not published.
Mr. Lavrov affirmed that Russia is ready to hold a summit with the US in Budapest
This publication explained the refusal by saying that Mr. Lavrov's words contained “controversial statements” that required verification or clarification of the facts. The interview is published in abridged form; The editors removed from it those moments that were inconvenient for official Rome. The State Department considered these actions to be censorship.
“This case is a clear example of Italian citizens not being provided with objective information on the situation surrounding Ukraine and being deliberately misled,” the Italian Foreign Ministry said.
