Italian intelligence officials have claimed that the Russian government has placed a $15 million bounty on the head of Defence Minister Guido Crosetto, targeting him for assassination.
Italian intelligence alerted the Italian government of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni that Russia had placed a bounty on Minister Crosetto, who has been the subject of scorn from Russian officials this year.
One of the officials, former President Dmitry Medvedev, labelled the Italian Defence Minister a “rare fool” at the end of January, the newspaper Il Giornale reports.
PMC Wagner, the private military company that has been active across Africa, and Syria and now plays a prominent role in the Russian invasion of Ukraine, is also highlighted by the Italian intelligence report as being linked to the possible threat against Crosetto.
Russia Using Wagner Mercenaries to Weaponise Migration by Pushing Refugees to Europe, Claims Italy https://t.co/gMp5XtBRx1
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) March 16, 2023
PMC Wagner allegedly has “cells” within Europe, according to Il Giornale and the bounty placed on the head of minister Crosetto comes as the head of PMC Wagner Yevgeny Prigozhin has also publicly criticised Crosetto over issues relating to illegal immigration.
Earlier this week, Crosetto had claimed that PMC Wagner was playing an active role in illegal immigration from North Africa after Italy has seen a tripling of migrant arrivals so far this year compared to the same period in 2022.
“I think it is now safe to say that the exponential increase in the migratory phenomenon departing from African shores is also, to a not insignificant extent, part of a clear strategy of hybrid warfare that the Wagner division is implementing, using its considerable weight in some African countries,” Crosetto said.
Prigozhin reacted to the minister’s statements by saying, “Crosetto should look less in other directions and deal with his problems, which he probably has not managed to solve.”
“We are not au fait with what is happening with the migratory crisis, we don’t deal with it, we have a heap of problems of our own to cope with,” he added.
Italy Migrant Crisis: Illegal Entries Have Nearly Tripled This Year https://t.co/lOvwdsojlD
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) March 13, 2023
Follow Chris Tomlinson on Twitter at @TomlinsonCJ or email at ctomlinson(at)breitbart.com.