Policies of Silvio Berlusconi period because during the Cold War Italy had the strongest communist party in western Europe. Vladimir Putin has many times expressed his appreciation for the respect shown by the Italian Prime Minister towards the leadership of the Russian Federation. Silvio Berlusconi is among the most vocal supporters of closer ties between Russia and the European Union. In an article published to Italian media on 26 May 2002, he said that the next step in Russia's growing integration with the West should be EU membership. On 17 November 2005 he commented in regards to the prospect of such a membership that
Death and funeral of Helmut Kohl because they object to their father and grandfather not being interred next to his wife of 41 years, Hannelore Kohl. In his biography of his mother, Kohl's son Peter Kohl wrote that Maike Richter seemed to have an unhealthy obsession with his father and compared her to a stalker who had ensnared his father. The Kohl family, unlike Maike Richter, also supports a state ceremony in Berlin. Death and funeral of Helmut Kohl Helmut Kohl, the former Chancellor of Germany, died at 9:15 a.m. on Friday, 16 June 2017 in the Oggersheim district of Ludwigshafen, his home town, aged 87.