I ask you a query: what can hyperlink a small Italian city of 55 thousand inhabitants positioned within the coronary heart of Italy with the places of work of the Russian Ministry of Tradition in Moscow? I don't need to go away you hanging and I'll provide the reply instantly: Russian propaganda.
In Foligno, in Umbria, on February 25, 2024, the propaganda of the Kremlin entered straight into the Italian public equipment with the settlement of the patronage of the municipality of the town to an occasion of pro-Russian origin , such because the screening of the movie “The Witness”, created with the contribution of the Ministry of Tradition of Russia.
A Goebbelsian reminiscence movie that has a single goal, to overturn the official narrative in regards to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which depicts the Ukrainian army as a den of Hitlerite Nazis who perpetrated abuses in opposition to the civilian inhabitants of Russian language, thus making the intervention. of Russia in Ukraine completely essential to revive peace and social justice and defeat Nazism.
In case you have already heard this story, don’t worry, these are the identical ideas expressed by the President of the Russian Federation to justify the large-scale assault on Ukraine on February 24, 2022. Briefly, Russian propaganda within the its purest kind. . Thoughts you, when “The Witness” was launched in Russia, on the finish of the movie there have been notes saying that the massacres in Bucha and Mariupol have been dedicated by Ukrainians and never by Russians.
Patronage is an important recognition by which a public administration expresses its symbolic adherence to an initiative deemed worthy and reveals its full and acutely aware help for the occasion. If the phrases nonetheless have which means on this period of post-truth, then it’s actually very tough to discover a justification for the selection of the municipality of Foligno.
On the day of the screening of the movie, February 25, an indication of dissent was staged by the Ukrainian group in Foligno to not demand the revocation of the patronage, which was inconceivable, however to demand their apologies to the mayor Zuccarini and to recollect. he how the gesture of agreeing to the promotion of such an occasion is a wound inflicted on all Ukrainians within the metropolis that will probably be very tough to heal. Additionally current on the demonstration was the MEP of the Italian get together “Azione” Fabio Massimo Castaldo who promised to deliver the case earlier than the European Parliament and inside the Italian Parliament to open the eyes of the very best political authorities on the damaging precedent created en Foligno and to make sure that it stays an remoted case.
Having mentioned that, the state of affairs was compromised and the screening of the Russian propaganda movie in Foligno went forward as deliberate.
Nevertheless, the Foligno date of the Italian tour of “U Testimone” will not be the one case in Italy, actually probably the most severe because it occurred with the patron of the municipality and in an institutional room, however from the start of January 2024 the tour of this propaganda movie reached many different Italian cities corresponding to Bologna, Florence, Milan and Genoa. If in some instances the town administrations have raised the problem and pushed for the cancellation of the screening (corresponding to Bologna and Florence), in lots of different cities they continue to be detached with out a phrase of dissent to get away from it and the movie was commonly projected.
However “the affair of Foligno” and the Italian tour of the movie “The Witness” was solely the tip of the iceberg, the hybrid conflict launched by Putin in Europe makes use of tradition as a weapon to destroy all our first line
In December 2023, the Russian soprano Netrebko was invited to carry out on the premiere of “Teatro alla Scala” in Milan. To be clear, this premiere is the most important Italian cultural occasion the place all of the Italian political and plutocratic elite collect to attend the efficiency of probably the most well-known operas. There isn’t any higher alternative to shine in excessive society, and this yr the brightest diamond was given to the Russian soprano.
Even between December 2023 and January 2024, a number of performances of the pro-Russian pianist Alexander Romanovksy passed off amid common indifference. Sure, he, the artist who carried out in at this time's occupied Mariupol in entrance of the Theater of Dramatic Artwork bombed by the Russians through which a whole lot of individuals misplaced their lives and who discovered house, citizenship and phases right here in Italy.
Then, in January, some pro-Russian Italian associations organized three conferences with scandalous subjects. The primary, in Modena, “The revival of Mariupol underneath Russia” was canceled after quite a few political and social pressures. The second convention, additionally cancelled, was a video convention assembly with Putin's ideologue Alexander Dugin, initially deliberate within the metropolis of Lucca with the title “In the direction of a brand new multipolar world”. The title in itself was fairly ridiculous, in making Dugin communicate there may be completely nothing “new” or “multipolar”. There may be solely the previous world of Russian totalitarianism.
The third, in Milan, focuses on the reminiscence of Darya Dugina and her relationship with Donbass. This final convention didn’t discover a lot political opposition between the administration of the town of Milan and the praises of the girl who declared that the Ukrainians are “subhumans who have to be conquered” have been common.
However why all this in Italy?
For the reason that Second World Struggle, Italy has suffered appreciable social and political interference from Russia for many years and, furthermore, the curiosity of Italians within the destiny of Ukraine on this conflict is at a minimal. Based on a latest analysis revealed on YouGov as a lot as 37% of these interviewed in Italy mentioned that they’d little or little interest in who will win the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. You learn it proper. No curiosity. Which means that within the European elections of June 2024, an excellent a part of Italians will vote with out the problem of the conflict in Ukraine with the ability to affect their judgment. As to what this voters chooses to vote for at this explicit historic second, it’s not identified. thriller of religion.
The case of the patronage of the municipality of Foligno for the Russian propaganda movie can due to this fact create outrage, but it surely shouldn’t be stunning. The Italian establishments are not more than the mirror of their voters, which is little or not knowledgeable in regards to the Russian aggression in Ukraine (when it’s not satisfied).
The administrations of Italian cities, regardless of the information of the state of affairs and the hazard of Russian infiltration, are sometimes hesitant to intervene as a result of in Italy there’s a idea that’s all the time fashionable in each season: freedom of expression. An idea thought-about sacred solely by those that need to distort its which means to achieve their objectives, on this particular case used as a Malicious program to infiltrate harmful anti-democratic concepts. Freedom of expression can’t be confused with freedom of misinformation. Freedom of expression can not assure the identical remedy to those that need to disintegrate our democracies and to those that as a substitute defend the values of the Italian structure (“Italy rejects conflict as an instrument of assault on the liberty of different individuals and as a strategy to clear up “worldwide disputes” Article 11 of the basic ideas of the Italian Structure). our western democracies from the infiltration of pro-Russian propaganda, in no matter kind they seem, in order that tomorrow we don’t should be those that cry “Assist, give us weapons to defend ourselves”.
