Aha Dua Permata: Adviser to Italian PM resigns over Russian prank call

Saturday 4 November 2023

Adviser to Italian PM resigns over Russian prank call

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni at the press conference of the Council of Ministers in Rome on November 3, 2023 © Getty Images / Simona Granati - Corbis

Francesco Talo, a diplomatic adviser to Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, has resigned after his boss’ recent phone conversation with Russian pranksters resulted in the public release of Meloni’s unfiltered comments on the Ukraine conflict and domestic issues.

Meloni announced Talo’s resignation on Friday during a Council of Ministers’ press conference. Answering a question about the prank call, the prime minister said that she had “had a doubt,” which she shared with the diplomatic office.

However, there was “a superficiality in proceeding,” which prompted the adviser’s resignation, she added.

She called Talo’s decision “a gesture of great responsibility,” noting that his tenure of service had amounted to several decades.

Regarding her statements about fatigue over the Ukraine conflict made during the prank call, Meloni argued that she “said nothing new” and added that “public opinion, including our own, is suffering from the consequences” of it.

On Wednesday, Russian pranksters Vovan and Lexus released the recording, dated from late September, where they spoke with Meloni while posing as an unnamed African politician. During the conversation, the Italian prime minister admitted that there was “a lot of fatigue” with the Ukrainian conflict, adding it was near “the moment in which everybody understands that we need a way out.”

These revelations come amid fears that Western support for Kiev is dwindling while the world’s attention’s has turned to the war in Gaza. In an interview with The Times published on Monday, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky expressed concern that “exhaustion with the war rolls along like a wave.” “You see it in the United States, in Europe,” he claimed, adding that it “is becoming like a show for them.”

On Friday, the US House of Representatives passed a $14.3 billion aid bill for Israel that does not include support for Ukraine, despite a White House statement that President Joe Biden would veto it. At the same time, the EU failed to agree on a budget allocating €50 billion in aid to Kiev.

Ukraine conflict ‘fatigue’ is growing, Italian PM tells pranksters

There is “a lot of fatigue” with the Ukraine conflict and EU nations will soon agree that it must be resolved through a compromise, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has told a pair of Russian pranksters.

Vovan and Lexus published the clip on Wednesday of their conversation with Meloni, which reportedly dates back to September and in which they posed as an unnamed African politician.

Discussing the Ukraine conflict, the Italian leader told the pair: “I see that there is a lot of fatigue, if I have to say the truth, from all the sides. We are near the moment in which everybody understands that we need a way out.”

“The problem is to find a way out which can be acceptable for both, without destroying the international law,” Meloni added.

The conversation then shifted to Kiev’s summer counteroffensive, the outcome of which the fake African politician suggested was a far cry from what many had expected. Meloni replied that the operation was ongoing, but acknowledged that it had not changed “the destiny of the conflict.”

“Everybody understands that it really could last many years, if we don’t try to find some solution,” Meloni stated. She then expressed concern that a badly-designed solution could trigger further conflicts, before criticizing what previously unfolded in Libya.

The North African nation was rocked by a NATO-backed anti-government uprising in 2011 which ousted longtime ruler Muammar Gaddafi. More than a decade later, Libya remains split among warring factions and is economically devastated.

Italy has been the destination for a flow of illegal migrants departing from Libya and crossing the Mediterranean Sea in the hope of receiving shelter in the EU. Meloni accused Brussels of not doing enough to help Rome as she discussed the issue at length with the pranksters.

The conversation also touched on European energy security and how developing energy production in Africa could improve it. “We are going to an era when we can’t manage it no more. It’s already too late,” Meloni said.

Later on Wednesday, Meloni’s office said the phone call had taken place on September 18, ahead of meetings with African leaders at the UN General Assembly. It said it regretted that the prime minister had been deceived by a prankster posing as the head of the African Union Commission, Reuters reported.

Vovan and Lexus, whose real names are Vladimir Kuznetsov and Aleksey Stolyarov, have been pranking public figures for years with fake calls from people their targets trust. The pair usually goad their targets into saying things they might otherwise be unwilling to make public.