Her name is Irene Cecchini, she is a university student from Lodi and is 22 years old. This is the girl who spoke with Vladimir Putin during a meeting at MGIMO, the Moscow Institute of International Studies. The Russian President was the guest of the forum entitled “Strong ideas for new times”. However, she, originally from Lower Lodigiana, studies at the institute. His family runs an agricultural business in Italy specializing in growing lavender. And today he decides to talk about the Tsar in an interview with The imprint. To say that “what we see in Italy is not the reality in Russia: it’s great here. It's a free country that gives opportunities to everyone.” Whereas “what we see in the West is a dystopian narrative stemming from anti-Russian propaganda.”
Irene Cecchini
The student Cecchini has very clear ideas about Russia: “The history of an illiberal and dictatorial Russia is a construction of the West which has been attacking Moscow for years to gain ever more ground. I am not talking about military attacks but about commercial and political strategies aimed at harming Russia. The West has always considered this country as the black sheep. Russia did nothing but defend itself. » And on the invasion of Ukraine, she answers: “I am not an expert in geopolitics and to answer this question I would have to be. What I can say, however, is that in Moscow and across the country people are calm about the Ukrainian situation. There is of course some concern, but just like the genocide taking place in Palestine. In short, it's not just Europe that exists.” While he prefers not to respond to the death of Alexeï Navalny.
Is Russia a dictatorship?
And when Francesca del Vecchio asks her if Russia is a dictatorship, she responds as follows: “During the forum, a student asked the president's assistant to be able to add to the question already asked. He was told the available time was up. At that moment, Putin turned to me who had asked him the question shortly before and said: “Looking at Irene, we really are a dictatorship.” In your opinion, would you be ironic about this if it were true?” Then he explains the tsar's words about Italy: “The president never speaks to an individual but to the world. It is his objective. But it is true that Putin, like all the Russian people, still loves Italy very much despite everything. The only difference between Russians and Italians is that here, they know how to separate daily life from politics. In Italian “.
The Russian
Finally, he explains that his Russian is fluent but that he has been studying it for four years: “I practice every day.” While his love for the country “was… as they say in Italian… true love at first sight. I knew nothing about this country but I fell in love with it. So I decided to come study here and continue my studies and my life here. » He hopes, one day, to obtain citizenship: “I know that my parents are close to me and approve of my choices”.
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