Welcome to the Age of Lawless Masculinity
Updated at 4:45 p.m. on November 20, 2021.
In 2008, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi invited his good friend Vladimir Putin to Sardinia, where Berlusconi had a vacation home, to discuss Italy and Russia’s business and energy ties. At a joint press conference held during the visit, the Russian journalist Natalia Melikova asked Putin a question about his rumored relationship with the former Olympic gymnast Alina Kabaeva. As an angry Putin stayed silent and cameras rolled, Berlusconi mimicked shooting Melikova. The Italian press dismissed this and similar by the prime minister as “” treating them as little more than social faux pas. Yet they were much more than that. Humiliating women, or even mimicking shooting them, was central to Berlusconi’s strongman brand and a key to
