Among them are Sberbank’s Gref, Gazprom Neft’s Dykov and the Deputy Speaker of the Duma. The same happened in May with four more Russian officials, including Prime Minister Mishustin
We take it back. Ten Russian officials and oligarchs were stripped of Italian decorations over the military aggression of Ukraine. Three decrees issued by the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella on August 8, on the initiative of Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio, provide for this.
Here are the ones stripped of Italy’s Order of the Star of Italy:
- Alexander Viktorovich Grushko, Deputy Foreign Minister;
- Alexander Valeryevich Dyukov, chairman of the management board of Gazprom Neft;
- Andrey Igorevich Melnichenko, a billionaire founder of EuroChem Group;
- Kirill Alexandrovich Dmitriev, CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund;
- Dmitry Vladimirovich Konov, former head of the petrochemical giant Sibur;
- Herman Oskarovich Gref, former Minister of Economy and Trade, currently CEO and chairman of the executive board of Sberbank, the country’s leading bank;
- Oleg Valentinovich Belozerov, CEO of Russian Railways;
- Evghenyj Sergheevich Ivanov, Deputy Foreign Minister;
- Aleksey Vasilievich Gordeev, Deputy Speaker of the Duma;
- Aleksandr Nikolaevich Shokhin, President of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs and member of President Vladimir Putin’s inner circle.
A growing list. Four additional Russian official were stripped of the Italian honours back in May: Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, Minister of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation Denis Manturov, Secretary of State Viktor Leonidovich Evtukhov and president of the VTB Bank Andrey Leonidovich Kostin.
- Since 2017, more than 30 honours of the Order of the Star of Italy have been awarded to Russian citizens. Regardless of the illegal annexation of Crimea, the Russian Covid-19 “aid”, nor the mobilisation of Russian troops in Belarus in early 2021.
- Among the recipients was Alexey Paramonov, a senior Russian Foreign Ministry official and former consul general in Milan, who recently threatened Italy with “irreversible consequences” in case of sanctions while attacking Italian Defence Minister Lorenzo Guerini.
