Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni fell for a caller who claimed to be Azali Assoumani, President of the African Union (AU) and also Head of State of the Comoros. This was confirmed by her office in Rome on Wednesday. In reality, the Russian duo Vowan and Lexus, whose real names are Vladimir Kuznetsov and Alexei Stolyarov, were behind it. The two Russians had also made fun of former Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) after the end of her term in office.
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 Ria Novosti news agency.
According to this information, the leader of the right-wing nationalist party Fratelli d’Italia said that there was “great fatigue on all sides” with regard to the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine. 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. According to Russian information, the conversation was also about the topic of migration.
Meloni is quoted as saying: “For a long time Europe believed 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), former British Defense Minister Ben Wallace and the director of the Bavarian State Opera 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.