Putin’s Speaker still on Malta’s honours list as Italy starts revoking awards

Malta will not yet follow in the footsteps of Italy to strike-off Russian recipients from its national honours list, specifically to revoke a Republic Day honour to Russian Upper House Speaker Valentina Matviyeko.

Italian foreign minister Luigi di Maio told reporters in Brussels on Friday that his country would remove all honours it had bestowed to members of the Russian government or Russian personalities.

“This is another initiative that explains the way Italy will conduct itself,” Di Maio told the press after a meeting of EU foreign ministers. “The Italian republic’s honours go to honourable people. We don’t think there is anything ‘honourable’ in what Russia is doing in Ukraine.”

A spokesperson for the Prime Minister would only say Malta will apply sanctions agreed upon at EU level, when asked whether Matviyenko would be struck off.

Matviyenko was a former ambassador, decorated by Joseph Muscat’s Labour administration on Republic Day in 2013, as an Honorary Companion with Breast Star, an honour conferred upon foreigners “who have promoted and fostered international relations with Malta or earned the respect and admiration of the nation”.

Matviyenko was honoured for her contribution towards bilateral cooperation between Malta and Russia, when she served as ambassador between 1991 and 1995.

But already then, the honour conferred had been controversial: as Speaker of the Federation Council, Matviyenko had that year promoted a bill introducing fines for “propaganda of non-traditional sex relations to minors” . The law created a charge for “promotion of homosexuality among children”, slammed as “anti-gay” by gay rights activists in Russia and abroad.

Malta has previously revoked the Gieħ ir-Repubblika it conferred upon Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi – twice in 2004 under the Gonzi administration (PN), and 1975 by the Mintoff administration (Labour) – and to deposed Tunisian president Zine Ben Ali, who was conferred the honour in 2005. The honours were revoked in 2011 during the Arab Spring and the revolutions that ousted them.

Due to her role in the Crimean annexation and referendum, Matviyenko also became one of the first people to be placed under executive sanctions by the Obama administration. The 2014 sanctions froze her assets in the United States and banned her from entering the United States.

As Speaker, Matviyenko took part in the Security Council meeting this week where senior Russian officials spoke in favour of recognising the separatist Luhanks and Donetsk ‘republics’, ahead of Russia’s full-scale invasion.

Russia’s upper house voted unanimously to approve Vladimir Putin’s request to invade Ukraine.

Matviyenko said the decision was aimed at “establishing peace in the Donbas” and “stopping this bloody civil war, not allowing any more shelling of peaceful villages and civilians, to create normal conditions for people to live and ensure security.”

Matviyenko this week said Russia was “well aware of weak points of the West” and that a package of restrictions would be applied against Europe.