Russia's grip on Italy runs deeper than headlines suggest

Le Monde published a striking observation this week from Italian political scientist Sofia Ventura: that Italy has no need for a Xenia Fedorova—the pro-Kremlin media personality who recently caused uproar in France—because Russian government propaganda in Italy is already pervasive and largely unchallenged. The comment cuts deeper than it appears. While France grapples with the visibility of a single propagandist, Italy's international observers see something more systemic: pro-Russian discourse relayed through channels so diffuse and socially accepted that they escape the scrutiny that would greet an obvious foreign agent.

This observation arrives as the world wire carries reports of far-right demonstrations in Rome calling for remigration of foreigners, and as Italian police dismantle clandestine financial networks. These are separate stories, yet they share a common thread: the ease with which certain narratives—about national sovereignty, about foreign threats, about the restoration of a mythical past—circulate in Italy with less friction than they might elsewhere in Europe. The world sees Italy as a place where such ideas find purchase.

We do not assert what is true in Italy itself, only what foreign observers report seeing from outside. And what they see is a country where Russian messaging does not require a famous face or a scandal to take hold. It moves through the ordinary channels of political discourse, through media outlets and social networks and the everyday conversations of citizens. The French case made visible what is invisible here. That invisibility is itself the story the world is telling about us.