OREANDA-NEWS Russian President Vladimir Putin has expressed his condolences over the death of former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. The Russian leader's address to Italian President Sergio Mattarella was published on the Kremlin's official website on Monday, June 12.
 
According to Putin, Berlusconi will be remembered in Russia as a politician who has always advocated the establishment of friendly relations between Moscow and Rome and made a personal contribution to the development of Russian-Italian ties.

Silvio Berlusconi died at the age of 87 at the San Raffaele Hospital in Milan on June 12. He was hospitalized on June 9, and a few weeks before that he was discharged from the clinic after a month and a half of treatment. This spring, the politician was diagnosed with leukemia.