Continue discussing Operation Dalla Russia with love, through which Moscow pledged its support to Italy, which was struggling with the most severe phase of the coronavirus in March 2020. Infections were widespread, deaths were increasing day by day and we were not ready to face a similar tragedy: our paese was expecting an as yet unknown monster. The phone call between the then Prime Minister had been important Giuseppe Conte and Wladimir Putin: Russia had supported Italy with military doctors and equipment. But there are doubts and mysteries about this operation: did the Russians have an ulterior motive? Why did they adopt a series of strange postures? Was there a real hidden goal?
The Mystery of the Russian Military
The personnel who had taken off from Moscow had landed at the Pratica di Mare military airport on the outskirts of Rome. Several dark sides are resurfacing after our Defense Minister Lorenzo Guerini of Russia was accused of being one of the main “hawks and instigators of the antiRussian campaign in the Italian government. Since March 2020, there are those who have picked up on something strange, as if everything is not going as expected.
The general was to reveal some details about it Enzo Vecciarelli, former chief of defense staff: “We were surprised, for my part, at the use of vehicles that came down from Russian planes. I won’t deny you that there were also some concerns at the beginning.” Why was only a small part of this Russian “task force” made up of medical and medical personnel? There are those who have even raised allegations of activity espionage to the detriment of the country. True or not, but there was a hint of suspicion in the air.
The suspect
General Vecciarelli, interviewed by Il Foglio, reported that the military structure that had just landed at Pratica di Mare was “different” from the others that had instead been welcomed in the days before. Was the intention of the Russians beneficial or is it legitimate to raise doubts about their actual work? “They came to our country for good things and for other less good things,” said Vecciarelli clearly.
There is no doubt that their deployment was useful: medical personnel, equipment, logisticians, personal protective equipment, lung ventilators and protective suits. But there is one: “But they also tried to do something else and we stopped them from doing it.” The former chief of the defense staff referred, for example, to the use of “unapproved machines in hospitals”.
“Collect informations”
As mentioned, suspicions are being raised by some that the Russians may have used the antiCovid aid in Italy to carry out an activity intelligence. General Vecciarelli confirmed that Russia authorized this operation “to gather information about Covid”. “It is plausible that he then wanted to look for other data,” he added. However, it should be specified that the contingent was “never left alone”: our men were placed next to the Russian column and “we did not admit them”.
But wasn’t it possible to block everything as it had taken very quickly for strong doubts to appear? Vecciarelli explained that their job was to “follow the government’s instructions and we have complied with them, of course with the utmost care”.
Yesterday’s Corriere della Sera spoke of a meeting that would be attended by the military leaders from Moscow, the Italians from the Joint Force Command and the TechnicalScientific Committee. On that occasion, the Russians asked to “disinfect all Italian territory and also to enter public offices and all vulnerable places”. However, only a few healthcare facilities were given the green light.