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On Sunday Italy voted in its first female populist candidate Giorgia Meloni to lead the country.
The Italian Center Right Party won big in national elections on Sunday making Giorgia Meloni the first female leader in the country’s history.
On Wednesday, in one of her first announcements since winning her election Giorgia Meloni pledged her full support for Kyiv after receiving congratulations from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for her election victory.
On Saturday Russian energy giant Gazprom suspended gas deliveries to Italy. The company blamed a transport problem in Austria.
The company does not see any new deliveries to Italy until Monday.
Russia’s Gazprom suspended gas deliveries to Italy just days after new right-wing leader Giorgia Meloni publicly backed Ukraine.
The Italian energy giant Eni said they were informed that a transport problem in Austria meant the Russian gas supplier would not able to delivery any gas until at least Monday.
Giorgia Meloni, who will become Italy’s new prime minister, previously said Putin ‘threatens the security of the entire European continent’ and that his annexation of four Ukrainian regions has ‘no legal and political value’.
Putin has been at loggerheads with European countries over the supply of natural gas and has been accused of using the flow of gas needed for energy in the region as an economic weapon.
Most of Russian gas delivered to Italy passes via Ukraine through the Trans Austria Gas Pipeline (TAG), to Tarvisio in northern Italy on the border with Austria.
Gazprom later in the day said in a statement that the transportation of Russian gas through Austria had been suspended ‘due to the refusal of the Austrian operator to confirm the transport nominations’.