This study delves into pro-Kremlin strategic narratives-relating to NATO, Western foreign and security policies, and nuclear war risks-spread in Italy by Russian media and government actors and amplified by Italian influencers, media, and political actors. It analyzes the evolution of such narratives from 2014 to early 2023, highlighting the underlying goals of Russian propaganda in our country: to increase Italian public distrust and hostility toward NATO, the United States, and the European Union, and to discredit Western security policies, particularly those aimed at countering the expansionist and neo-imperialist policies of Vladimir Putin’s Russia.
The first part of the paper explains the Soviet concept of “active measures,” which is essential to understanding the strategy of influence and cognitive warfare pursued by the Kremlin in the Putin era against Western democracies. In addition, the main historical, political, and cultural factors that have made Italian society more permeable to the influence of pro-Kremlin strategic narratives are examined.
The second part of the study analyzes the main narratives disseminated in Italy by Russian propaganda on foreign policy and international security, and taken up by Italian influencers and political actors, in the period from 2014 to the Italian general elections in 2018 to the European elections in 2019. A focus is placed on the role of populist-sovereigntist political parties, and in particular of The League (Lega) and the Five Star Movement, in spreading pro-Kremlin narratives through political initiatives, media campaigns and street demonstrations.
The third part of the study explores the main narratives on foreign policy and international security issues disseminated by Sputnik Italia and the Italian version of Geopolitika.ru during the period 2019-2021. These narratives, amplified by other components of the Russian disinformation and propaganda ecosystem in Italy and by Italian influencers, aimed to create an “alternative reality”, a distorted perception of international politics, among large sectors of Italian society.
The fourth part of the paper explains how the strategic narratives about NATO, Western foreign security policies, and nuclear war risks that were developed and disseminated in previous years are being repurposed and used since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 to promote misleading interpretations about the causes of the war in Ukraine to the Italian public and political and intellectual elites, to justify or relativize Russian aggression, and to discredit Italy’s policy of military support for Ukraine and economic sanctions policy toward Russia.
Finally, this paper proposes some guidelines for a cultural strategy to effectively defend Italian democracy and national security from disinformation and propaganda operations promoted by Russia and other autocratic foreign powers aimed at influencing significant sectors of Italian society according to their geopolitical interests.
Desinformatsiya and active measures: pro-Kremlin strategic narratives in Italy on NATO, Western foreign and security policies, and nuclear war risks, Luigi Sergio Germani, Lorenzo Crippa, Giovanni Ramunno, Carlo J. Filisto, 2023