“An independent enclave in the north of Italy, San Marino has long had close ties to Russia, which it has explained by reference to its traditional neutrality. It did not join other Western nations in imposing sanctions after the annexation of Crimea in 2014. On the contrary, five years later, by which time Kremlin-backed separatists had occupied large parts of eastern Ukraine, the microstate’s then foreign minister invited his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, to make an official visit. In 2021 it bought Russia’s Sputnik vaccine, giving Moscow a propaganda boost, and later that year the two countries signed an agreement to scrap visa restrictions. In 2022, however, after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the tiny republic did implement sanctions against Russia, thereby abandoning centuries of formal neutrality.”
Fonte: the Economist
Link: The tiny republic of San Marino is alarmingly friendly to Russia
