Ciro Cirullo, a well-known young Italian street artist who goes by the pseudonym Jorit, said Friday his recent visit to Russia and exchange of words with President Vladimir Putin should not be read as praise for the leader but that it is necessary to burst the "propaganda bubble".
"The recent visit to Russia is coherent with the path of artistic militancy that I have been pursuing for years and, like the previous ones, aims to spread a message of peace," posted Jorit on Instagram.
"Far be it from me to praise Putin, but how can we not burst the propaganda bubble that wants us to be in conflict and always on several fronts?".
Jorit spoke to Putin and posed for a photo with him during a youth forum in Sochi late on Wednesday.
"A lot of strange things are said about you in Italy," the artist said, to which Putin replied: "Sure, just don't pinch me to make sure I'm a real person".
"The photos of (Premier Giorgia) Meloni kissing Biden or Netanyahu should cause more discussion at least than mine with Putin," continued Jorit on Instagram. "Instead, war propaganda has made us believe that on one side there are the good guys (the West) and on the other the bad guys (Russia, in the future maybe also China?)," he insisted.
The street artist also said "European politicians must immediately resume diplomatic contacts and open a dialogue with Russia".
"We must stop the war, we must build bridges between peoples, we must do it now!"
Jorit's works include a mural of a child in tears under bombs in Mariupol, the Ukraine Red Sea port in the Donetsk region conquered by Russian troops in 2022.
"The idea was to show the problems of the Donbass children to the whole world," he said.
"The Western media often distorts reality. They talk about the suffering of children in one country, for example, but remain silent about what is happening in the neighboring one," added Jorit.
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