Adnkronos (Adnkronos) – Is General Roberto Vannacci Moscow's Trojan horse? In an interview with Adnkronos, former Italian ambassador to Russia, Giorgio Starace, discusses the leader of the National Future party, who was military attaché in the first months of his mandate, from October 2021 until May 2022, when he was then expelled. Starace discusses how he performed his role and his surprise when the general decided to enter politics.
In a lengthy article, the Financial Times called Vannacci Russia's 'Trojan horse.'
What is his judgment?
I don't think Russia needs Trojan horses. Observe the political landscape in various European countries, and there's no doubt that Vladimir Putin and his close associates in the Kremlin are stalling for time in the negotiations on Ukraine, partly because they believe that the attitude of the leader of National Future or other European parties could favor Russia's certain positions on the battlefield or in the negotiations in 2027.
If I were Putin and his comrades, I wouldn't rush negotiations, waiting for developments in the big election year, which, in the coming months, will involve not only Italy and countries like Sweden and Poland, but also France in a vote that will represent a huge watershed moment. Meanwhile, in the Kremlin, they've seen what's happening in Germany with the AfD.
How did Vannacci behave during his tenure in Moscow?
“I'm sure I'll disappoint several scoop-seeking people if I say that he's always had an extremely technical approach to his work with me.
I called him every two or three days, asking him a series of technical questions about the battlefield and the information he was receiving from his colleagues, and he responded with well-written, precise, and concise analyses, but certainly with a technical approach that overestimated the power of the Red Army. If I were to look for value judgments, I wouldn't be able to say he was particularly close to the regime. He certainly demonstrated great attachment to Russia and was very upset when he was expelled along with 23 other Italian diplomats in May four years ago [in retaliation for what our Foreign Ministry did, ed.]. Moreover, his opinion that the Russian army was technically stronger than the Ukrainian one was shared by many leading military experts, including British and American ones. I remember that a few days after the Russian invasion, then-US President Joe Biden hinted that there was the possibility of safe conduct for Zelensky and those closest to him in the United States, believing that Kiev would fall. It is true that Vannacci said that the Russians would enter Ukraine like a knife through butter, but there is no observer who was not surprised by the Ukrainian army's resistance."
Did you expect him to enter politics?
I was surprised, because his conservative views, as a Folgore man, certainly emerged from his interactions in those days, but he didn't particularly insist on political issues, like immigration. It must be said that at that stage we were extremely worried about the war and very focused on an increasingly complicated situation. Certainly, in a country like ours, which is the only one with deep divisions on both sides over the positions to take with Russia and Ukraine, the Vannacci element further complicates the picture, impacting on the dynamics of public opinion. But the FN is not the AfD (the far-right party that recently triumphed in the Saxony vote, ed.). AfD is a very broad phenomenon, with a strong geographical radicalization, and in Germany, unlike Italy, it is not governed by a center-right coalition and there is no large right-wing party like FdI, which since the beginning of its government mandate has maintained strongly Euro-Atlantic positions and political, economic and military support for Kiev.
Do you think the latest conversation between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump will produce any results?
Moscow wants to drag things out. Ultimately, the only concessions the Russian president could make to the American president, eager to have something to offer his voters ahead of the midterm elections, might concern Iran, with Russia possibly withdrawing even minimal assistance from Tehran. The Russian economic situation has certainly worsened, but let's not forget that the Federation is a resilient country. Russia is the country that lost tens of millions of people in World War II, won it, and considers wars to be lifesaving.
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