Berlusconi receives Vladimir Putin in Arcore, where they are caught playing joyfully by a camera (photos)

Wednesday, 5 December 2013. Silvio Berlusconi is caught playing joyfully with his friend Vladimir Putin at Arcore's villa, though there are two versions of the story.

Berlusconi, Putin, a ball, a dog (left): which picture is real and which is fake?

Silvio Berlusconi's good friend Vladimir Putin - whose profession is being the president of Russia –, and in the end of November he was a guest at the Arcore's home of the Italian billionaire, when they were caught playing in one of the corridors of the magnificent villa (in fact one of the most beautiful of the properties owned by the former prime minister of Italy).

Pictures of the event were published by both the authoritative Facebook page Prugna (“Prune”) and the gossip magazine “Chi” (“Who”) - a publication owned by the Berlusconi family. You won't find this in the news.

The title of the article of scandal-seeker magazine is “Silvio's new life”, hinting at the fact that Mr Berlusconi should play with his dog after he was unceremoniously expelled from the Senate of Italy, due to a tax fraud conviction.

One set of pictures appears to have been heavily edited with Photoshop or a similar devilry: is it the one where Putin seems to be playing fetch with Dudù, the white poodle owned by Berlusconi's 29-year-old girlfriend, Francesca Pascale? Or the other way around? Difficult to say.

By the way on the same number of the magazine (which became known for publishing the photos of a dying Princess Diana in 1997 and unauthorized photographs of Kate Middleton in 2013) - Ms Pascale stated that in order to avoid unwanted bunga-bunga incidents, she has placed «around the house land mines», adding the «[Berlusconi's] Ladies and young girls are warned».

This confirms that the young lady friend of Berlusconi possesses a sense of humour similar to that of his partner, the former prime minister of Italy, whose gaffes and wisecracks has been collected in our dedicated page.