Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni was the victim of a prank phone call. The perpetrators are no strangers to the political scene.
Rome – Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni fell for a fake call from Russia. The leader of the right-wing nationalist party Fratelli d’Italia fell for a caller who identified himself as Azali Assoumani, president of the African Union (AU) and head of state of the Comoros, as her office confirmed in Rome on Wednesday. In reality, the Russian duo Wowan and Lexus, who had already fooled former Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) after the end of her term in office, were behind it.
Meloni’s office confirmed that such a phone call took place on September 18 in advance of the UN General Assembly in New York. The Italian government did not comment on the content. However, excerpts were published in Russia, for example by the news agency Ria Novosti. The two Russians – whose real names are Vladimir Kuznetsov and Alexei Stolyarov – had tricked foreign politicians in this way several times.
Russia also publishes telephone calls for propaganda purposes: Meloni speaks of war fatigue
According to Russian information, the conversation was, among other things, about the topic of migration. Meloni is quoted as saying: “Europe has long believed that it could solve the problem by limiting it to Italy. The problem is that the others don’t care.” Meloni came to government a year ago with the promise of getting irregular immigration under control. In fact, more boat refugees are likely to arrive in Italy across the Mediterranean this year than ever before.
Berlin’s former mayor Franziska Giffey (SPD) and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba have also fallen for calls from the Russian duo. For the conversation with Merkel, one of the two posed as former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko. In Russia, her troll actions have often been celebrated by pro-Kremlin media and commentators.
In this case too, the calls were used for propaganda purposes: According to the information, Meloni said, with a view to the Ukraine war that has been going on since February last year, that there was “great fatigue on all sides”. The sentence is reproduced as a quote: “The time is approaching when everyone will understand that we need a way out.” She also has “some ideas” about this, but wants to wait for the right moment. (nak/dpa)
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