I ask you one question: what can link a small Italian town of 55 thousand inhabitants located in the heart of Italy with the offices of the Russian Ministry of Culture in Moscow? I don’t want to leave you hanging and i’ll give you the answer immediatly: russian propaganda.
In Foligno, Umbria, on February 25, 2024, the Kremlin’s propaganda entered directly into the Italian public apparatus with the granting of the patronage of the city municipality to an event of clear pro-Russian origin, such as the screening of the movie “The Witness”, created with the contribution of the Russian Ministry of Culture.
A film of Goebbelsian memory that has a single purpose, to overturn the official narrative on the russian invasion of Ukraine, describing the ukrainian army as a den of hitlerite nazis used to to perpetrating abuses against the russian-speaking civilian population, thus making the intervention of Russia in Ukraine absolutely necessary to restore peace and social justice and defeat nazism.
If you have already heard this story, don’t worry, these are the same concepts expressed by the president of the Russian Federation to justify the large-scale attack on Ukraine on February 24, 2022. In short, russian propaganda in its purest form. Mind you, when “The witness” was released in Russia, at the end of the movie there were writings stating that the massacres in Bucha and Mariupol were committed by ukrainians and not by russians.
Patronage is the most important recognition through which a public administration expresses its symbolic adhesion to an initiative deemed worthy and shows its full and conscious support for the event. If words still make sense in this post-truth era, then it is really very difficult to find a justification for the choice of the municipality of Foligno.
On the day of the screening of the movie, February 25th, a demonstration of dissent was staged by the Ukrainian community in Foligno not to ask for the revocation of the patronage, which was impossible, but to ask Mayor Zuccarini for his apologies and to remind him how the gesture of agreeing to the promotion of such an event is a wound inflicted on all ukrainians in the city that will be very difficult to heal. Also present at the demonstration was the european deputy of italian party “Azione” Fabio Massimo Castaldo who promised to bring the case to the European Parliament and within the Italian Parliament to open the eyes of the highest political authorities to the dangerous precedent that was created in Foligno and to ensure that it remains an isolated case.
Having said that, the situation was now compromised and the screening of the russian propaganda movie in Foligno took place as scheduled.
However, the Foligno’s date of the Italian tour of “The Witness” is not the only case in Italy, certainly the most serious as it took place with the patronage of the municipality and within an institutional hall, but from the beginning of January 2024 the tour of this propaganda movie reached many other Italian cities such as Bologna, Florence, Milan and Genoa. If in some cases the city administrations raised the problem and pushed for the cancellation of the screening (such as Bologna and Florence), in many other cities they remains indifferents without a word of dissent to distance themselves from it and the movie was regulary screened.
But the “Foligno’s affair” and the Italian tour of the movie The Witness was only the tip of the iceberg, the hybrid war launched by Putin in Europe is using culture as a weapon to break through to our entire front line.
In December 2023 the Russian soprano Netrebko was invited to perform at the premiere of the “Teatro alla Scala” in Milan. To be clear, this premiere is the major italian cultural event where the entire Italian political and plutocratic èlite gathers to attend the performance of the most famous operas. There is no better opportunity to shine in high society, and this year the brightest diamond was given to the russian soprano.
Also between December 2023 and January 2024, several performances by the pro-russian pianist Alexander Romanovksy took place amid general indifference. Yes, him, the artist who performed in the now occupied Mariupol in front of the Dramatic Art Theater bombed by the Russians in which hundreds of people lost their lives and who found home, citizenship and stages here in Italy.
Then, in January, some Italian pro-russian associations organized three conferences with outrageous themes. The first, in Modena, “The rebirth of Mariupol under Russia” was canceled after numerous political and social pressures. The second conference, also cancelled, was a videoconference meeting with Putin’s ideologist Alexander Dugin, initially scheduled in the city of Lucca with the title “Towards a new multipolar world”. The title in itself was quite ridiculous, in making Dugin speak there is absolutely nothing of “new” or “multipolar”. There is only the old world of russian totalitarianism.
The third, in Milan, focused on the memory of Darya Dugina and his relationship with Donbass. This latest conference did not find much political opposition among the administration of the city of Milan and the praise of the woman who declared that the ukrainians are “subhumans who must be conquered” was held regularly.
But why all this in Italy?
Since the Second World War, Italy has suffered considerable social and political interference from Russia for decades and, furthermore, italians’ interest in the fate of Ukraine in this war is at an all-time low. According to a recent research published on YouGov as many as 37% of those interviewed in Italy said they had little or totally no interest in who would win the war between Russia and Ukraine. You read that right. No interest. This means that in european elections of June 2024, a good portion of italians will vote without the topic of the war in Ukraine being able to influence their judgment. On what this electorate will choose who to give their vote in this particular historical moment, is not known. Mystery of faith.
The case of the patronage of the municipality of Foligno for the Russian propaganda movie may therefore create indignation, but it should not be surprising. Italian institutions are nothing more than the mirror of their electorate, which is little or not informed about russian aggression in Ukraine (when not conniving).
The administrations of italian cities, despite knowing the situation and the danger of russian infiltration, are often hesitant to intervene because in Italy there is a concept that is always popoular in every seasons: the freedom of expression. A concept considered sacred only by those who want to distort its meaning to achieve their own goals, in this specific case used as a Trojan horse to infiltrate dangerous anti-democratic ideas. Freedom of expression cannot be confused with the freedom to misinform. Freedom of expression cannot guarantee the same treatment to those who want to disintegrate our democracies and to those who instead defend the values of the italian constitution (“Italy refuse war as an instrument of attack on the freedom of other peoples and as a means of resolving international disputes” Article 11 of the fundamental principles of the Italian Constitution). Because, at the end, look it however you want, this is what we’re talking about: saving our western democracies from the infiltration of pro-russian propaganda, in whatever form they present themselves, so that tomorrow we won’t have to be the ones shouting “Help, give us weapons to defend ourselves.”
Diego Ghidotti, founder of the Stand for Ukraine Italy movement
David Turner is a globe-trotting journalist who brings a global perspective to our readers. With a commitment to shedding light on international events, he explores complex geopolitical issues, offering a nuanced view of the world’s most pressing challenges.
