No alarm, there are no elements to hypothesize Russia’s action with drones against European countries, including Italy. “We don’t know about it, not just us: it doesn’t know about anyone”, says the Minister of Defense, Guido Crosetto, responding to a question about the alleged ‘alert’ from the CIA reported by the Spanish newspaper ‘el Mundo’, according to which Moscow could use ships as departure bases for drones. The specific alarm “does not exist, we are not aware of it and it is not even known to other governments called into question; this does not mean that a threat does not exist, but that this thing that the Spanish newspaper writes is not known to us”.
Crosetto: “The threat cited by El Mundo is not known to anyone”
“Russia has no need for ships 200, 300, 500 km from Italy to hit us”, explains Crosetto, who spoke at the presentation of the book ‘Becoming a power. Instructions for a European Revolution (Rizzoli)’ by Paolo Gentiloni at the Marco Besso Foundation in Rome. “The Russian threat against any European country does not need ships in the Mediterranean”, observes Crosetto adding that “Russia and the weapons it has and uses almost every day in Ukraine are enough”. “We don’t need to invent threats to scare us – he underlines – That said, Can Russia be a threat? There are various sensitivities and answers to this question: the closer you get to Russia, the more the answer is yes. For years I have been saying in parliament that we must prepare for threats, I’m not saying this, but for a new type of war.”
“We have been preparing for years on the basis of what happened in Ukraine, not on the basis of an article where untrue things are said”, underlines Crosetto according to whom we start “from the observation of what is happening in the world, therefore the armed forces have also moved from that point of view, in recent years, after seeing what happened in Kiev”.
Tajani: “Italians must not fear Russian attacks”
Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani is on the same wavelength. “There is no confirmation of the rumours. There are cyber attacks, but Italians should not be afraid of Russian military attacks”, says the Foreign Minister, Antonio Tajani, on ‘Dritto e rovescio’, on Rete4, at the end of the day. “We have no information or reports in this sense” and “there is no basis in this news”, says the deputy prime minister on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York. “I spoke with Minister Crosetto, we both say that there is no basis for this news”, adds Tajani, stating that “it is another matter to say that the Russian side is attacking through a hybrid war, through cyber security, through attempts to influence the elections of European countries”. But, he explains, “I don’t think that Russia wants to attack Europe and NATO, it would be a serious mistake on their part, and they would be doomed to defeat”.
Macron: “No information from the CIA”
The alarm raised by El Mundo is also debunked in France. “We can deny this news, the CIA did not send this information”, says French President Emmanuel Macron, specifying however that “there is a situation that is increasing in tension”. According to the French president, “for Ukraine as for us Europeans, hostile acts have multiplied”. Macron reiterates that he brought together French political forces last week “to warn them” about the situation.
“Russia multiplies hostile and criminal acts” in Europe. Today in France there have been no attacks of the type that occurred in Leipzig”, specifies the Head of the Elysée, adding that “we must be clear about the evolution of the threat” and “prepare ourselves. Civil and military sites are subject to additional protection.”