Berlusconi did not invent the placing of foot in mouth. He merely perfected it.

[fpb]

Even his supporters must have been bewildered when he saw fit to do a State visit to Belarus and come back praising its chieftain Lukashenko - the last deep-red, genuine, twenty-four-carat Communist tyrant in Europe. In case you weren't aware, reds-under-our-beds is the standard Berlusconi electoral tactic.