Crosetto: 'Unsuspected Italians corrupted by Russia. Putin will not turn back, Kiev decides whether to cede territories'

"Unsuspected Italian people have been corrupted by Russia", says Defence Minister Guido Crosetto in Bruno Vespa's new book "Finimondo" to be published on Thursday 30 October by Mondadori-Rai Libri. "Russia is already attacking us with ahybrid and cognitive war," adds Crosetto, "without even us, as normal citizens, realising it, its propaganda has entered the brains and cultural formation of many people, directing them through a sophisticated use of social networks and other information tools, with a scientific infiltration and also with the classic infiltration of corruption.

During the course of the day, the minister spoke again on the subject: 'Today someone was surprised by an agency in which a sentence of mine was reported. This was the sentence: 'Unsuspected Italian people have been bribed by Russia'. A sentence that served to develop the reasoning on the ongoing hybrid war and that did not seem to me either relevant or newsworthy. I forgot the poor collective and journalistic memory,' the Defence Minister wrote on X, posting a screenshot of an online news item dated 20 November 2024, where it was reported that Walter Biot, the former officer, was sentenced to 29 years, accused of selling a Russian government official information covered by military secrecy.

Crosetto aggiunge nel libro che “la Russia ha una grandissima scuola in questo campo e noi siamo uno dei paesi più sensibili alla penetrazione interna. Noi siamo il principale paese europeo che i nostri nemici vogliono destabilizzare, terrorizzare, inquinare e rendere instabile. L’Italia è l’unica nazione stabile in Europa e proprio per questo motivo siamo l’obiettivo principale. Sotto il profilo dell’infiltrazione di potenze ostili, da noi può succedere davvero di tutto”. E ancora: “nessun paese UE ha deciso una chiusura all’esportazione di armi come l’Italia-dice ancora Crosetto nel libro di Vespa-. Nessuna nazione ha aiutato la Palestina come la nostra. Eppure in nessun paese ci sono state le polemiche che abbiamo avuto da noi. Siamo stati il paese con le reazioni, le manifestazioni e le aggressioni più forti. Questo, nessun Landini è capace di farlo da solo. C’è un’infiltrazione formidabile che tende a stabilizzare l’unico paese europeo davvero stabile grazie al governo Melon

"Regaining the territories lost in 2014 and after February 2022, today is considered by all to be impossible. Russia will never surrender them and Ukraine will not have the strength to regain them on its own, even with our help. Putin cannot turn back also because he changed the constitution by making the occupied territories 'Russian' for all intents and purposes and thus put himself in a position where he cannot negotiate," Crosetto continued.

Asked by Vespa if US President Donald Trump is willing to sign the cession of all the territories, the minister replied: 'The first hypothesis made by the president of the United States is to talk about cessions...' And will Ukraine ever be able to admit the cession of the four occupied provinces? 'I don't know,' Crosetto replied, 'it is up to them alone to decide whether the greatest sacrifice is the cession of the territories or the continuation of a bloody war that could get worse.' 'The Ukrainian dead,' Crosetto recalled, 'are 520,000, the Russian dead are more than 1 million. The difference is that the Ukrainians know their losses, the Russian people have no idea.