I sort of feel sorry for the press corps covering the Berlusconi-Putin Spaghetti summit in Sardinia – it must be difficult to constantly think up new questions that will not receive any substantive answers. That’s not to say that there weren’t tremendous issues at stake for Italians and the rest of the European Union: The perennial showman Berlusconi, whose adventures in plastic surgery seem to be intensifying, offered his Russian guest unprecedented opportunities for Gazprom to take over Eni’s assets in Libya, sell gas directly to Italian consumers, grease the wheels for Aeroflot to swallow up Alitalia, and significantly deepen economic ties between the two countries so that Italy, not Germany, can act as the Kremlin’s ambassador and problem solver in the EU. The only good idea Berlusconi had was the proposal to scrap the harsh and unfair EU-Russia visa regime. But did reporters press the two leaders on these important issues? No, instead we were treated to a show of masterful banter by the two politicians-for-life, fending off questions about Putin’s alleged romance with a gymnast while Silvio pretended to “gun down” the probing journalist. After the cut, see the frighteningly hilarious scene of authoritarian bravado…