Rare wine for Berlusconi creates stir
Berlusconi met his long-standing friend Putin on a private visit to Crimea earlier this month that sparked ire in Kyiv.
While it is unclear how much, if any, of the wine Putin and Berlusconi consumed, Ukrainian prosecutors are furious, and are preparing criminal charges against Pavlenko.
Russian president Vladimir Putin appeared to be having a great time when he and the disgraced former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi popped a 240-year-old bottle of Spanish wine in Crimea this week.
Massandra was Ukrainian government property before Russia’s annexation of Crimea in March 2014, but has since been nationalised by the Kremlin.
Kholodnitsky said that authorities estimated the bottle of wine could be worth “over United States dollars 100,000”.
Ms Pavlenko’s predecessor as governor, Nikolay Boyko, was dismissed in February after Russian prosecutors filed fraud charges against him.
“Now she’s added one more crime to high treason”, Mr Kholodnytsky said.
When the peninsula was annexed, Massandra only owned five of the famous bottles, after two were sold at Sotheby’s auctions, with the personal authorisation of then Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma. The charges, however, would be moot since Russian Federation now has full control over Crimea.
In a video from Russian television of the pair’s tour of the winery Berlusconi can be seen asking the director if “it is possible to drink” one of the aged bottles. After the visit, Ukraine’s national security council issued a decree banning Mr Berlusconi from the country for three years for the “security of our government”.
Mr Putin and Mr Berlusconi are both reportedly named in the case over “large-scale misuse of property”.
“Yes” said Massandra’s director Yanina Pavlenko, according to Radio Free Europe.