Limes, but whose side are you on?

“No one seems to think this could be anything other than an internal problem.” This was Guido Crosetto’s response regarding the credibility of the ‘Russian link’ put forward in connection with the explosion at a Knds Ammo Italy munitions factory in Colleferro, which supplied Ukraine, whilst Azione leader Carlo Calenda called on the government to report to Parliament to dispel ‘uncertainty over a possible Russian hybrid attack’. Meanwhile, Copasir is monitoring the situation, and the Velletri Public Prosecutor’s Office is investigating both possibilities: negligent disaster caused by unknown perpetrators, but also sabotage, “taking the international context into account”. Three days earlier, the Emco depot in Beliča, Bulgaria – which also supplies ammunition to the Ukrainian army – had been blown up.

The judiciary will tell us what really happened in Colleferro, but in the meantime, Limes’ decision to comment on the news by publishing a map of the ‘geography of the military industry’ in the Tiburtina Valley struck many as rather irresponsible. The map had already been published by the geopolitical magazine on 4 March, based on ‘open-source’ data: certainly, the Russian secret services do not need Limes’ infographic to know where to strike, but in a Europe under pressure from hybrid operations, was it really necessary to publish the geography of Italian military installations, at the risk that some admirer of Putin might decide to act on their own (and for free)? In the days following the explosion in Colleferro, numerous automated fake profiles on social media, believed to be linked to Russian bots, celebrated the explosion as if it were a victory on the battlefield. It was precisely this that helped convince the Public Prosecutor’s Office to add the line of inquiry into sabotage to that of culpable disaster. Furthermore, the news was given significant prominence by Telegram profiles and channels linked to RT/Ruptly, as well as by the National No NATO Coordination Committee and Vincenzo Lorusso’s Donbass Italia channel. Meanwhile, Limes, as is often the case, stands out for consistently crossing that fine line between the right to make bold claims and the safeguarding of national security in a geopolitical context that is polarised to say the least.