Silvio Berlusconi, former Italian prime minister and media mogul, dies at 86

FILE PHOTO: Forza Italia leader and former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi looks on following a meeting with Italian President Sergio Mattarella at the Quirinale Palace in Rome, Italy October 21, 2022. REUTERS/Yara Nardi

MILAN (Reuters) -Silvio Berlusconi, the billionaire media mogul and former Italian prime minister who transformed the nation's politics with polarising policies and often alarmed his allies with his brazen remarks, died on Monday aged 86.

Berlusconi, Italy's longest-serving premier who counted Russian President Vladimir Putin as a close friend and gained notoriety for his "bunga bunga" sex parties, had suffered from leukaemia and recently developed a lung infection.