One of the main parties involved in the fall of the government was the League, an anti-immigration party led by Matteo Salvini, who is said to have close ties to Russia. He once posed in Red Square wearing a T-shirt with a photo of the Russian leader. Two former Italian prime ministers on Friday called for an urgent investigation into allegations that Moscow pressured Mr Salvini to withdraw his support. The League has forged a right-wing alliance with Brothers of Italy and Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia party. An influx of migrants could alarm Italian public opinion and help the right-wing alliance, particularly Mr Salvini, who has been outspoken about the need to curb unauthorized arrivals. The accusation that Russia is using migrants to destabilize Europe and bolster its supporters comes less than a year after Belarusian leader and close Putin ally Alexander Lukashenko sent thousands of Middle Eastern migrants to the EU.
Bus to the border
Belarus invited people – mostly in Iraq – to fly to Minsk, then bused them to the country’s heavily wooded border with Poland and told them to walk across. Warsaw responded by building a wall and deploying its security services, a tactic that has sparked a row within the EU over human rights. The Kremlin was widely believed to have encouraged the entire fiasco. He sees migrants as a tool to undermine European governments by sowing discontent, weakening cohesion and breaking resolve. Using the Wagner Group to advance those goals by worsening the cornerstone of immigration in the run-up to a tense election would make perfect sense, a lawmaker said Friday. “It should come as no surprise to anyone that Wagner should be involved in the Italian election,” said Enrico Borghi, a member of the parliamentary intelligence committee. “Putin’s Russia is trying to influence elections in our country. [He] lit a furnace – Libya, Africa. To put Italy in a difficult position is to hold the whole of Europe under control.’
