Mattarella words 'won't go without consequences' - Moscow

(ANSA) - ROME, FEB 17 - Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has said that Italian President Sergio Mattarella's comments at the University of Marseilles earlier this month comparing Moscow to Nazi Germany over its invasion of Ukraine will not go "without consequences".
    "During a lecture at an educational institution, he said he believed that Russia could be equated with the Third Reich," Russian news agency Ria Novosti quoted Zakharova as saying on Russian State TV.
    "This cannot, and will never, be left without consequences".
    Zakharova also blasted Mattarella's speech last week, saying it featured "blasphemous inventions".
    Sources at the president's office said in response that the Mattarella was absolutely serene and called on people to read the text of his speech.
    Premier Giorgia Meloni said the attacks on Mattarella "offend the whole nation, which the Head of State represents.
    "I express my full solidarity, as well as that of the entire Government, to President Mattarella, who has always firmly supported the condemnation of the aggression perpetrated against Ukraine", the prime minister said in a statement. (ANSA).