Putin and Berlusconi in Crimea wine row

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EPA




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Mr Putin and Mr Berlusconi visited the Massandra winery death hebdomad



Ukrainian prosecutors say they are preparing charges against the drumhead of a Crimean winery for allegedly scuttle a 240-year-old bottleful for Vladimir Putin and Silvio Berlusconi.

The Russian chairman and other Italian prime fatigued death weekend in Crimea touring antediluvian ruins. Prosecutors say they drank at Crimea's famous Massandra winery. Massandra was Ukrainian regime holding ahead Russia's appropriation of Crimea in Border 2014. Any charges could not presently be chased in Crimea, where Russia has full-of-the-moon ascendancy.



Russian media cited by Tuner Unfreeze Europe reported that Berlusconi asked if he could try the vino during a turn of Massandra.

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AFP




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Silvio Berlusconi and Vladimir Putin suffer been well-disposed for days



A attestant aforesaid Massandra's new pro-Russian conductor Yanina Pavlenko in reaction uncorked a cute bottleful of 1775 Jeres de la Frontera for her honored guests. Russian tv death hebdomad showed Mr Berlusconi cautiously surveying dusty bottles of wine-coloured spell the Russian leader listened to Ms Pavlenko as she gave them the spell. Late, the Italian billionaire is seen look a bottleful identified to be from the vintage of 1891, and asked in English: "Is it potential to drinking?" The manager replied: "Yes." It is ill-defined what happened thereto bottleful, but Ukrainian prosecutors say the bottleful they are concentrating on was deserving more $90,000 (ВЈ58,000). They say they are preparing peculation charges against Ms Pavlenko. "This is one of the fivesome bottles that found not solitary Massandra's or Crimea's inheritance, but the inheritance of all Ukrainian multitude,'' Nazar Kholodnytsky, commencement lieutenant prosecutor for Crimea told the Associated Crush newsworthiness delegacy in Kiev.

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AFP




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The two men too visited an Italian war graveyard in Crimea during the line of the early Italian leader's impose



He aforementioned two bottles exchangeable to the one allegedly consumed were auctioned in London in 2001 and one fetched most $49,700 (£32,000; €44,000). "The finances went to the country coffers and supported the growth of Massandra and wine-making in Crimea," Mr Kholodnytsky aforementioned. Ms Pavlenko's forerunner as regulator, Nikolay Boyko, was pink-slipped in February afterward Russian prosecutors filed put-on charges against him.

The new regulator is herself precious in Ukraine for treachery later she voted in prefer of Russian appropriation in 2014. "Now she's added one more offense to treason," Mr Kholodnytsky aforementioned. Mr Putin and Berlusconi enjoyed commodity personal dealings when the Italian leader was in mightiness, which they bear retained since he unexpended berth in 2011.



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