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138 Max Seddon & James Politi, ‘‘Putin’s Party Signs Deal with Italy’s Far-Right Lega Nord,’’
Financial Times, Mar. 6, 2017. Peter Foster & Matthew Holehouse, Russia Accused of Clandestine Funding of European Parties as US Conducts Major Review of Vladimir Putin’s Strategy The Telegraph, Jan. 16,
2016. Jason Horowitz, With Italy No Longer in US. Focus, Russia Swoops to Fill the Void The
New York Times, May 29, 2017; Sebastian Rotella, Russia is Engaged in a Full-Scale Shadow War in Europe Business Insider, Apr. 20, 2017. Jason Horowitz, With Italy No Longer in US. Focus, Russia Swoops to Fill the Void The
New York Times, May 29, 2017. Warsaw Institute, Italians with Gazprom Again Russia Monitor, Sept. 1, 2017.
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Vladislava Vojtiskova et al., The Bear in Sheep’s Clothing Russia’s Government-Funded
Organisations in the EU, Wilfried Martens Centre for European Studies, at 25 (July 2016).
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Angelantonio Rosato, A Marriage of Convenience The Future of Italy-Russia Relations
European Council on Foreign Relations, July 15, 2016. Jason Horowitz, In Italian Schools, Reading, Writing, and Recognizing Fake News The
New York Times, Oct. 18, 2017. tries.
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Some observers also suspect that the Northern League may have received funds from the Kremlin’s security services.
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While there is no known evidence of MS receiving funding from
Kremlin-linked sources, one Italian national security official told
Business Insider that I think some of our political parties are vulnerable to infiltration. They don’t have the experience, the antibodies, to fend off such formidable intelligence services.’’
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Esto- nia’s ambassador to Italy, Celia Kuningas-Saagpakk, who in a previous role monitored the Kremlin’s malign influence operations in Ukraine and elsewhere, noted to the The New York Times, that the Russian government has invested a lot in influencing public opinion in [Italy].’’
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State-owned Russian energy firms also exert influence through Italian energy firms such as ENI, which is currently a partner of
Gazprom in the Nord Stream 2 pipeline (see Chapter At the request of Gazprom, though unbeknownst to its attendees, an ENI subsidiary reportedly sponsored a foreign policy conference at a think tank in Italy, where it was stressed that Russia could bean important ally for the EU.’’
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It is worth noting that Russia is
Italy’s biggest supplier of natural gas, and Italian oil major ENI’s policy is to give priority to its relationship with Gazprom over Algerian suppliers. ENI has also signed a strategic partnership agreement with Gazprom, and pledged to cooperate with Gazprom both on the now-cancelled South Stream pipeline and the under-consid- eration Nord Stream 2 pipeline.
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Since the 2016 referendum, Italy’s government has begun to take actions to better inoculate its population against fake news and disinformation campaigns. The president of Italy’s Chamber of Deputies, Laura Boldrini, has spearheaded a project with Italy’s Ministry of Education to train students at 8,000 high schools across the country on how to verify news stories and recognize fake news and conspiracy theories that they see on social media platforms. Facebook is reportedly contributing to the initiative by promoting it with targeted ads aimed at high-school-age users in Italy.
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The program should help to mitigate fake news stories that originate both at home and from abroad, and should be studied by other countries as they develop their own school curriculums to counter fake news. According to the now-confirmed US. Ambassador to Italy, Lewis
Eisenberg, Italy is aware of the Kremlin’s tactics in Italy and the country shares our concerns about Russian aggression in Europe,
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139 Responses to Additional Questions for the Record, Lewis M. Eisenberg, Nominee for Ambassador to Italy & San Marino, Nomination of Lewis M. Eisenberg to be Ambassador Extraor-
dinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to the Italian Republic, Hearing before the US. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, July 20, 2017.
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Connor Murphy, EU Extends Russia Sanctions through January 2018,’’ Politico, June 28,
2017. James Kanter, Italy Delays E.U.’s Renewal of Sanctions Against Russia The New York
Times, Dec. 14, 2015.
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Angelantonio Rosato, A Marriage of Convenience The Future of Italy-Russia Relations European Council on Foreign Relations, July 15, 2016. Northern Italy Regions Overwhelmingly Vote for Greater Autonomy The Guardian, Oct. 22, 2017. Italy’s exports to Russia did fall significantly after the sanctions were implemented, dropping around 40 percent in the first half of 2015. European Parliament, Directorate-General for External Policies, Policy Department,
Russia’s and the EU’s Sanctions Economic and Trade Effects, Compliance, and the Way For-
ward, at 9 (Oct. 2017). including Russian disinformation campaigns and malign influence activities During his Senate confirmation hearing, Eisenberg told the US. Senate Foreign Relations Committee that he will work to strengthen our coordination with Italian partners, across relevant agencies, to detect and counter these activities that seek to undermine democratic institutions and principles and to make US- Italian cooperation on this issue a priority, particularly in advance of Italian national elections that are likely to take place in The US. government must follow through on these commitments and help Italy secure its democratic process against foreign interference. Italy is an essential NATO ally and a key member of the EU, which will vote in 2018 on whether to uphold sanctions related to the Russian government’s activities in Ukraine.
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Italy has at times been skeptical of imposing and strengthening EU sanctions on Russia, and in 2015 delayed a sanctions renewal decision, arguing that more discussion was needed.
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In the Veneto region of Italy, a local assembly controlled by the Northern League adopted a resolution into call for Italy to end the sanctions on Russia, arguing that counter-sanctions are damaging the Venetian economy (the region also voted in late 2017 in favor of greater autonomy from Rome).
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Lessons Learned
• Italy Maybe a Target of Opportunity for the Kremlin Given the opportunity to promote an outcome that could weaken the
EU’s united stance on sanctions, the Russian government could seek to interfere in Italy’s elections in early 2018. Along with other important elections around Europe, the United States and our partners and allies must maintain the highest levels of cooperation and vigilance to ensure that our electoral processes remain free from undue foreign influence.
• Disinformation Comes From Domestic Sources Too The Kremlin is not the only source of disinformation and conspiracy theories that seek to undermine European institutions like the EU and NATO. Domestic political parties, especially populist ones, can also make effective use of the same tactics that the Kremlin employs. As Italy also shows, educating the population on media literacy and how to discern fake news can be one of the most important steps toward strengthening there- silience of the democratic process.
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(141) NATO Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence, About Us https:// www.stratcomcoe.org/about-us (visited Dec. 14, 2017). EU vs. Disinfo, Disinformation Cases https://euvsdisinfo.eu/disinformation-cases (visited Dec. 14, 2017).

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