More Russian Federation Interference in American and Italian Politics

United States: There was a federal indictment of a Russian who worked with an American socialist organization to sow divisions and advance Russian propaganda. Interference by ex-Soviet intelligence officer Vladimir Putin, the Russian tyrant, through left-wing international movements is not surprising, but what has changed is his appeal to right-wing anti-migrant “nationalists” and Islamophobic Christians. There were additional U.S. sanctions against Russians for similar interference in American politics since 2014, including a multi-million dollar operation. Russian interference in American politics was “sweeping and systematic,” according to Republican Special Counsel Robert Mueller and confirmed unanimously by the GOP-led Senate Intelligence Committee. Putin was successful in winning Donald Trump both the Republican presidential nomination and the presidential election and in influencing Trump’s policies. Russia backed Trump’s releection in 2020 while denying or minimizing its 2016 interference or trying to blame the Democrats or Ukraine. Italy: The Trumpist anti-migrant League party of Italy has had a history of Russian influence, like other pro-Putin European rightwing parties. A leading party figure was caught on tape a few years ago accepting a Russian offer of energy credits to fund the party, whose leader openly admired Putin. The League leader refused to answer questions about it. In May, the League secretly accepted payment from the Russian embassy in Italy for a trip to Russia to discuss the Russian aggression in Ukraine, which it did not inform its fellow governing coalition partners about. Although the League opposed Russian’s invasion, it claimed it was attempting to negotiate “peace” and opposed sending more arms to Ukraine, but it dropped the plans for the trip after the report about it was published. Now there have been press reports that a League attorney met with the Russian embassy and discussed making the national unity government fall by withholding support for a vote of confidence in the popular technocratic Prime Minister, thus precipitating his resignation and the President’s call for early elections, as explained in my last post. Because the League is part of a right-wing bloc that was favored in the polls to win the elections, it figured it would be able to take power and govern without the anti-populists and the center-left, but causing the government crisis during a critical time is a risky strategy that could end up backfiring.