Russia's reign of falsehoods in Italy
The more it tries to break away, the harder the Kremlin strikes back
Italy is the target of Russia’s wrath
Day 123 of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine and Italy is standing by its side: it hasn’t been easy, and it’s a constant struggle for Italy’s Prime Minister, Mario Draghi and his government.
Mario Draghi, has expressed his unconditional support for Ukraine, and his government have delivered three tranches of armaments to Ukraine for its defence. The Italian equipment is “effective, and the logistics allowed for immediate deployment in the field.”
Being an Atlanticist, Draghi has brought Italy closer to the United States and NATO members, which means he’s been steering Italy out of its radical right populist bent and Russia’s waters. That’s quite a chore for a nation that has had a long history of relations with the Soviet Union then and Russia now, but imperative when it comes to Italy’s security architecture.
In order to shed itself of Russian energy dependency, the Italian government have actively sought to diversify its energy sources, and struck deals for natural gas supplies from Algeria.
As a result, Italy’s dependency on Russian natural gas has decreased by 15% in three months. Russian natural gas now accounts for 25% of total energy requirements, and by September, it will be reduced to 5-6%. In just a few months, Draghi and his government will have achieved what was once thought impossible- reduce Russian energy dependency to safer levels.
The more Italy comes to the aid of Ukraine and tries to throw off the yoke of Russian capture, the more Russia strikes back. When Draghi was in Washington to meet president Biden on May 11th, Italian institutions and private businesses were hit by Legion, a Russian funded cyber attack group, and it wasn’t the first time. Italy has been dealing with Russian cyber attacks on a regular basis for 3 months and the Italian intelligence and National Cybersecurity Agency anticipate that “cyber aggressions will worsen in the near future”. Another signal of Kremlin displeasure was the expulsion twenty-four Italian diplomats on June 8th.
After four months of war, prime minister Draghi and his government continue their support of Ukraine’s defence, but the Italian public is slipping.
The Kremlin has been far more successful in swaying Italian public opinion towards its positions through a relentless disinformation campaign and pressure on its Russophile Italian politicians.
A recent Eurobarometer survey shows that less than half of Italian citizens think that the Russian government is responsible for the invasion of Ukraine. Only 39% blame the Kremlin, which well below the European average (52%). Italian sentiments are now closer to Hungary (29%) than to Germany (58%).
Adolfo Urso, the head of Italy’s intelligence watchdog—COPASIR— has said that the Italian infosphere has been a battlefield disseminating “Moscow-made fake news” since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, so much so that Italy has become a European case study.
With the excuse that they are providing ‘both sides of the story’, and that Italy respects ‘all points of view’, Italian infotainment talk shows host many Russian official government propagandists, affiliated with the Russian Ministry of Defence or intelligence services. The airtime given to them is unparalleled in other European countries.
Matteo Pugliese compiled a list which also includes Russian ‘journalists’, and ‘ideologians’.
Added to the hefty Russian presence are so-called Italian pundits and infotainment talk show personalities who pontificate on a variety of issues ranging from entertainment gossip to nuclear threats. Very few real experts on Russia or Ukraine actually appear on these shows, but we’ll find Italians expressing their ‘views’ about how Ukraine should concede territory to achieve peace. The talk show platforms are such that they encourage shouting matches and hyperbolic discourse, and resemble their Russian counterparts on Rossyia-1.
We thought the summer hiatus would bring some respite from the constant drumbeat of Russian talking points Italians are fed on a daily basis, but there doesn’t seem to be any hope in sight. We hit a new nadir on June 23rd when Bruno Vespa, at the helm of the Italian public broadcaster RAI 1’s Porta a Porta, hosted Vladimir Solovyev, Russia-1’s uber-nationalist Russian propagandist.
The constant repetition of Russian falsehoods by Russian propagandists and Italian pro-Kremlin collaborators has served to normalise Russia’s aims and make them acceptable to the mainstream. The main messages are that Russia is simply defending itself in a world that seeks to destroy it. Ukraine, NATO, and the United States are the real culprits of the destruction of Ukraine, and the death of Ukrainian citizens.
One example, among many, of Russian talking points seeping into the mainstream media crossed my path on June 25th. In a scathing op-ed in La Stampa, Domenico Quirico, an Italian journalist, blamed Ukraine and president Zelensky for the war. Russia and Russian aggression and genocide weren’t even mentioned. This is significant because Sergey Razov, the Russian ambassador to Italy, took la Stampa and Quirico to court on March 25th for instigation of violence against Putin.
If Italian political infotainment is a crying shame, social media channels, Telegram chats and other platforms are much worse. Memes, videos and graphic posts reflect anti-Atlanticist, anti-American, and pro-Kremlin views and sentiments.
Russian disinformaton has been pipelined into the social media platforms directly from its intellgence services and then through a various vectors throughout the Kremlin’s information war network.
The pipeline is always the same: what differs is the false narrative the Russians are pumping into the pipeline through their vectors. The same vectors seeding disinformation about Ukrainians being ‘nazis’ for the past eight years fed Covid disinformation into the same channels, attracting consensus from anti-vaxxers and anti-establishment groups. They are now at the heart of the anti-Atlanticist, anti-American and pro-Kremlin sentiment in Italy.
The groups formed on social media spouting pro-Kemlin propaganda actually do make the jump into the real world. In a recent rally in Palermo (Sicily), The New Communist Party (Rifondazione) teamed up with 3 other new ‘movements’ to sustain the mayoral candidate Francesca Donato (LadyOnorato). These movements seem to come out of nowhere. Alex Orlowski, data analyst, published his findings on Donato’s Twitter account, which showed that her account along other famous Italian ‘influencers’ are vectors for pro-Putin narratives and Russian accounts in Italy and beyond.
The Russian information assault will intensify over the summer, and release new falsehoods and conspiracies in order to adapt to developments on the ground in Ukraine. Russian media is now seeding the conspiracy that the EU is seizing grain from Ukraine to create a reserve for Europe, and is blaming the EU for the crisis.
A conspiracy theory sustained by Andrey Koshkin:
First of all, everyone was confused by the figure of 20 million tons. This number was named by Joe Biden. When the experts began to analyze, they came to the conclusion that today, at best, 5 million tons of grain can be in Ukraine. Moreover, it is constantly taken out in the direction of the EU states, and what is most interesting, they immediately fall asleep in their storage facilities, and do not send it somewhere to the south, as politicians and experts constantly say about this.
This is the narrative that Italian media observers are now trying to follow as it moves from the official Russian accounts into social and mainstream media platforms. Conspiracies will arise (monkeypox, biological weapons) as well as a barrage of divisive narratives triggered by the SCOTUS decision to overturn Roe v Wade. What is posted on Russian accounts, will make its way into the Italian info bloodstream in real time.
Prime Minister Draghi and a few ministers of his government are steadfast in their support of Ukraine’s defence, while the pro-Kremlin faction of Italian politicians and influencers are doing everything they can to stymie Draghi’s efforts.
A large faction of Italians are showing signs of ‘Ukraine fatigue’: 50% of Italians now cannot distinguish between good and evil, between the victim and the perpetrator of violence and destruction. If these people have bought into Russian falsehoods, this speaks to the failure of the Italian government to counter Russia’s use of reflexive control and active measures in the Italian infosphere.
The government should be communicating its resolve, and the reasons behind it, through a well-designed information campaign. Heck, they should be learning how to do this from Ukraine and its brilliant communications teams. Just as the Russian information war machine was able to sway a percentage of the Italian population towards its goals, the Italian government should be able to win them back, but it may be too late.
Ukrainians need the support of all the people of the free world, Italians included, because this is the ultimate fight of good over evil.
Thanks for reading
Mo