Russia and the Italian Far Right

So first blog entry was about these guys, uh, in general.

So can we just, uh, maybe go through the three blog entries, um, bit by bit and explain, um, a little bit more in depth what the issue here is and how this all ties together?

Sure.

So as I mentioned, the, in the first blog post, I'm, uh, uh, looking at how the, um, operation is called Operation 88.

Uh, uh, you know, I think, uh, many of the listeners may be familiar that the number 88 is significant as it's, uh, the eighth letter of the alphabet is H, so it's sort of like a code for, uh, uh, uh, for Hitler, like a, a neo-Nazi slogan.

Um, so Operation 88 was the name of this, uh, um, investigation in Northern Italy that started off looking at the, uh, graffiti on the side of a church but ended up through, uh, uh, you know, intercepted phone calls discovering that there was this, um, mercenary recruitment network operating, uh, and, uh, sending people to, uh, to Donbas.

And so- Um, you know, a, a, a good part of my first post focuses on one of the main, you know, characters, uh, personalities in this, um, network whose name was, uh, uh, is Andrea Palmeri.

Um, he had been a, a leader of one of the, uh, um, far-right ultras football gangs in Italy.

Um, and had over the years since starting, I think, around, uh, 2004, had, um, just engaged in increasing, uh, uh, uh, assaults, violent assaults on left-wing activists, uh, until he had been convicted to spend four years in prison.

But, um, it just happened he was on house arrest when the annexation of Crimea happened, and he was, he was o- he, uh, has- was appealing his, uh, uh, conviction, and, uh, decided to take the opportunity to flee and, uh, uh, you know, drive by car apparently from, uh, from Italy to, um, to Russia.

Um, and then, you know, the, the rest of the post talks about some of the other members of the network, which included, um, uh, veterans, uh, one veteran of Fr- French Foreign Legion who had received military training in Russia.

Um, a, uh, uh, an- another individual who comes up a few times in, in, in the posts, uh, named Olsi Crutani, who, uh, says he r- you know, reportedly is a, a, a, a m- a, a Russian, uh, paratrooper, a former paratrooper who had participated in operations in Chechnya, and he was running and, uh, uh, is still running, um, martial arts centers in Italy.

Um, and he was also one of the, uh, main, uh, um, recruiters in the network.

And the, uh, uh, investigators and prosecutors in the case said that he, uh, that, that the, um, martial arts centers were operating as a front for a, uh, Russian, um, uh, uh, a cultural, uh, a, b- group called Essence of Time, which is a sort of, uh, uh, political group that, that promotes the return of the USSR.

Um, and so he, uh, was, uh, a- arrested for his role in the, uh, recruitment network and, uh, served, I believe, uh, it's two years and eight months in, uh, prison, and then was released and went on to, um, uh, you know, continue writing pro-Russian online blog posts.

And then there are a number of other, uh, uh, individuals who were, uh, named [audio cuts out] uh, who appear to be, um, uh, uh, you know, in, uh, uh, Donbas or, or in Russia.

They, they were, uh, either convicted in, uh, absentia or just have the arrest warrants out for them.

And then the other, the, the final, uh, section of the post talks about how, uh, in 2019, um, after some of the, uh, foreign fighters were starting to return to Italy, the, uh, police conducted a series of raids and discovered these massive stockpiles of weapons.

Uh, they described them as the biggest stockpiles of weapons they had ever seen in any such raid ever in Italy.

Um, they included, you know, assault rifles, hunting weapons, machine guns, bayonets, tons of ammunition.

And the big surprise was this, um, uh, air-to-air missile that had been manufactured in Qatar.

And so, um, uh, three of the suspects were arrested and, um, it, it really kind of underscores one, uh, uh, of the big threats from the returning, uh, foreign fighters from, uh, uh, from these conflicts is, uh, uh, the threat of, uh, uh, you know, domestic terrorism because, um, the, the, the authorities had also, uh, intercepted a phone conversation in which one of these mercenaries had said, you know, the quote is, uh, "When I return to Italy, I will kill some politicians." So it looked like, you know, they were, um, trying to sell the weapons stockpiles but also had some intentions to, uh, you know, commit some domestic violence when the opportunity might present itself.

So that's-

Yeah, interesting-

Yeah