In an interview with RIA Novosti, he stressed that the country is very interested in the best achievements of Russian visual, musical, theatrical art, as well as classical literature.
“The problem of the ‘cancellation’ of Russian culture, at least in the shameful Russophobic form in which it is put in a number of other Western countries, in Italy, in my opinion, does not exist,” the ambassador said.
At the same time, the diplomat expressed regret over the cancellation of performances by a number of Russian cultural figures, including conductor Valery Gergiev, pianist Valentina Lisitsa and dancer Sergei Polunin.
Earlier, Ukrainian diplomats tried to disrupt the concert of the performer Valentina Lisitsa at the Russian Cultural Center in Hungary, which was held in honor of the Day of Russia.
They sent notes to diplomatic missions - both invited and not invited to the concert - with the aim of preventing the event from taking place.
In December, the Italian Arcimboldi Theater canceled performances by Russian dancer Sergei Polunin.
Also, the management of the international festival Pianistico in Italy decided to cancel two concerts of the Russian pianist Denis Matsuev.
The artist was supposed to perform on May 24 in Brescia and on May 27 in Bergamo.