Thread by @P_Kallioniemi

In today's #vatniksoup, I'll introduce a Russo-Italian politician, Irina Osipova. She's best-known for her ties to European and Russian neo-Nazi groups like Golden Dawn and Rusich, for her close ties to various Russian officials, and for her new job at the Italian senate.

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She was born in Moscow, Russia in 1987 and his father is Oleg Osipov, former director of the Russian Center of Science and Culture in Rome. The organization is basically a form of Russian soft power & aims to establish contacts between the influential Russians and Italians.

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Today, the organization is led by Dariya Pushkova, former RT propagandist and daughter of prominent Russian politician Aleksey Pushkov who also happens to be the President of the "Commission on Information Policy".

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Osipova got involved in politics at an early age, and already back in 2012, she founded an association called "RIM - Young Italian-Russian", which aimed to bring together all "active and creative young people, who mainly use Russian in their daily lives".

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She also participated in the Rome municipal elections from Giorgia Meloni's Brothers of Italy party in 2016, getting just under 200 votes. Her campaign relied heavily on Putinisms like "The model for Italy to defend national interests" and she referred to Putin as the...

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...Tsar and as "a leader who has no equal in the world." You can still find some of these messages on her old X/Twitter account.

After she wasn't elected, she started touring the Europe, visiting various far-right figures while building new connections.

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Already back in 2014 she was demonstrating against the European sanctions on Russia after they illegally annexed Crimea. These demonstrations also focused on supporting Russia's policy against the Kyiv's "Nazi regime" and their stance on Donbas and Crimea.

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In 2017, she participated as one of the speakers/panelists at an event called "Donbass, a war on the conscience of Europe". Apparently the whole event focused on EU's lack of solidarity towards the fake republics of DPR and LPR.

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Criticizing the Kyiv "Nazi regime" hasn't stopped Irina from hanging out with literal neo-Nazis in Europe and in Russia. He's spent time with Andrea Palmeri, former football hooligan, who was sentenced to 5 years in prison for recruiting people to fight in Donbas.

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Other groups Irina has associated herself with include a far-right, fascist movement Lealtà Azione, and a Greek, far-right and neo-Nazi and ultranational criminal organization, Golden Dawn.

In 2020, GD's leaders were convicted for heading a criminal organisation.

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Then there's the founders of the Rusich Group, Alexey Milchakov & Yan Petrovsky, two neo-Nazis who are best-known for their brutal & barbaric terrorism crimes in Ukraine. Read more about Alexey here:

And about Petrovsky here:


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https://twitter.com/P_Kallioniemi/status/1589145838869434370

https://twitter.com/P_Kallioniemi/status/1697162353207394605

Osipova has also made connections in the Italian politics, and she's collaborated with Lombardy-Russia association since 2014. The group is led by Northern League member Gianluca Savoini, former right-hand man and spokesperson of Matteo Salvini:

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https://twitter.com/P_Kallioniemi/status/1635953481268830210

In 2023, Osipova wiggled her way into the Italian Senate as a "parliamentary assistant". She got the position after participating in a public competition in 2019 which did not require any kind of authorization. She placed 78th and was accepted as an assistant due to ...

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..the dire need of new work force in the Palazzo Madama,the upper house of the Italian Parliament in Rome.The appointment was also noticed by the The Ukrainian Embassy in Rome, who expressed their concern on the matter & criticized the "the hiring of a Russian propagandist"
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Many anti-EU "experts" often refer to the decisions made on the EU level by people who were not elected (supposedly they haven't heard of the EU parliament).

Here we have a clear case of pro-Kremlin Russian who has strong ties to both Russian and ...

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... European far-right movements working at the Italian Senate because she was able to write and speak better than other candidates.

And this is exactly how the Russian soft power works.

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On 12 Sep 2023, a petition calling for the prevention of her appointment was launched:



These petitions may have only little actual effect, but this is definitely something the Italian Senate should consider doing.

17/17change.org/p/impediamo-l-…

Thank you to @Ander_Bruckes for their great thread on Osipova:

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https://twitter.com/Ander_Bruckes/status/1700209528560644143

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