Italian intelligence has produced a ridiculous report accusing the Wagner Group of being behind the increased wave of illegal migrants from Northern Africa, as part of a hybrid warfare against Italy. The Italian government has adopted the report’s allegations as its own and Defense minister Guido Crosetto, backed by mainstream media propaganda, stated: “It seems to me that the exponential increase of the migration phenomenon from African coasts is also, in a non-minor degree, part of a clear strategy of hybrid warfare” which the Wagner Group “is conducting, using its relevant role in some African countries.” He added: “The global confrontation opened by the Ukrainian conflict uses uncontrolled migration to hit the most exposed countries, Italy in the first place.”
Lega Senate leader Massimiliano Romeo went further, saying in an interview with the daily Libero, that “the moment has come to involve the Atlantic Alliance” in “stabilizing the geopolitical situation” in Northern Africa.
While such allegations are opening de facto a new front in the NATO war against Russia, Wagner Group head Prigozhin was properly dismissive: “We have no idea of what is going on with the migration crisis, but we do not deal with it. We have other things to do.” Then, according to Rainews, Prigozhin referred to Crosetto with the derogatory word “Mudak.” (A restrained English translation of “Mudak” might be “asshole.”)
The quality of the intelligence report blaming the Wagner Group for using illegal migrants as a wave against Italy is indicated by its claim that 685,000 migrants are ready to depart from Libya to Italy. But according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), this is the figure for the total presence of immigrants in Libya, two thirds of whom work in Libya and do not want to leave the country. (The exact figure is 683,813, as of October 2022). Furthermore, only around 3,500 are detained in centers for illegal migrants. The report is therefore a complete fake. The question is raised as to whether it was planted by NATO.
