Russia exploits Italian coronavirus outbreak to expand its influence
Tags: Poland, Coronavirus, Italy, Social Media, Russia

This article is part one in a three-part series on how international powers are seizing the COVID-19 outbreak in Italy as an opportunity to increase their influence over Europe.

When the COVID-19 outbreak reached Italy at the end of February, the country suddenly had to face an unprecedented health emergency, exacerbated by a parallel “infodemic” that has overwhelmed public discourse with rumors and disinformation. As Italians try to understand how to cope with the tragic losses caused by the pandemic, some domestic and foreign political actors have embraced the opportunity exacerbate political divisions.

Over the past three decades, the Italian political system has become increasingly unstable. There have been 19 different governments over the last 30 years, when normally a government would serve a full five-year term. The rise of populist parties during the 2018 elections, coupled with the gradual delegitimization of institutions and rampant discontent among the population, have contributed to this instability. The use of digital platforms has allowed populist parties to engage younger and wider audiences while simultaneously amplifying unverified content and disinformation narratives with ease.

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Italy’s political and social environment provides the perfect opportunity for domestic and foreign actors to spread divisive narratives and galvanize popular discontent. Italian right-wing opposition parties, namely Lega and Fratelli d’Italia, are exploiting the pandemic to weaken the government’s approval rating with the intent of triggering new elections, while Russia and China are taking advantage of the relatively modest support offered by E.U. member countries overwhelmed by their own outbreaks to foment anti-EU, anti-NATO, and anti-US sentiment across Italy and present themselves as alternative allies.

The Italian information environment has been overwhelmed by all sorts of contradicting news, from conspiracy theories about the origin of the virus, to anti-establishment memes and slogans. There are also deceiving narratives pushed by foreign powers that compete for long-term influence, with center and center-left parties mostly supporting US, EU and NATO cooperation, as Lega aligns with Russia and the Five Star Movement facilitates stronger relations with China.

“FROM RUSSIA, WITH LOVE”

From Russia, with love: that is how the Kremlin has branded its shipment of medical supplies and experts to Italy to help the latter deal with the COVID-19 crisis. From March 23 onward, pro-Kremlin outlets and Russian officials introduced supporting narratives that quickly spread across social media in both Russia and Italy.

Before the supplies even landed in Italy, though, Russian Senator Alexey Pushkov tweeted from his official account, “Poland did not allow Russian aircraft with humanitarian help for Italy through its airspace,” forcing the Russian cargo plane to take a much longer trajectory through Turkey. The Polish government’s prompt denial of the incident and the removal of the tweet did not prevent Pushkov’s statement from going viral on Russian news outlets and social media.

Using different sets of keywords on Buzzsumo, the DFRLab found dozens of articles reporting the statement online. The search term Польша не пропустила (translated to: “Poland didn’t let [them] through”) returned 15 articles with 52,681 engagements registered in one week.