I warned you a few weeks ago that a civil war on the right over Ukraine was coming, didn’t I?

Well, it’s here. And by “here,” I of course mean “in Italy.”

Yesterday Italian media reported that former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, a key player in the country’s new coalition government, was caught on tape blaming Russia’s war on its victims. It was Ukrainian brutality in the Donbas that compelled Moscow to intervene, he told his audience, framing the invasion as a sort of humanitarian intervention.

He also related how his friend Vladimir had recently sent him 20 bottles of vodka and “a very kind letter” for his birthday, as soft-hearted humanitarians are wont to do.