The ‘vannacciano’ website speaks like Russia Today

On a giant screen, the President of the Russian Federation officially opens the 2026 International Youth Festival in Yekaterinburg. Among the mobile phones filming the scene is that of Ugo Rossi, a Trieste city councillor and city group leader for Futuro Nazionale. The Vannacci supporter spent two weeks in Russia as an international observer for the Duma elections. From that very same smartphone, Rossi floods his social media feeds with posts in support of his two key leaders: Roberto Vannacci in Brussels and Vladimir Putin in Moscow. He is in good company, of course. The general’s social media network (comprising FN committees, leading figures and ardent admirers) is teeming with content, very often generated by AI and designed to spread fake news in Italy about the conflict in Ukraine, convincing as many people as possible to see Putin no longer as a threat but as a saviour.

In Trieste, Rossi is dishing out bite-sized nuggets of crude, easily digestible Putin-style propaganda. “What do you prefer?”, he asks his followers. On one side of the video are migrants, with an EU flag above them and the words ‘violence, degradation, poverty’ below; on the other side is Russia, personified as a blonde woman holding a bouquet of flowers, with the words ‘culture, beauty, wealth, growth, respect’. Hundreds of comments praise the “great motherland, Russia”, and Rossi continues. “What do you choose? Weapons and money for Ukraine, or Russian gas and oil?” Here too, the stark contrast: on the left is Putin in a judo gi with fuel prices under 2 euros; on the other, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy with his finger pinching his nose. The image was not selected at random: it is one of the most recurring narratives in pro-Russian disinformation targeting Zelensky, suggesting that the Ukrainian president is a corrupt drug user and that the European leaders who support him share in his decadence.

Weeks ago, some individuals did so with even greater visual flair. Whilst the ‘esoteric superhero Vannacci’ took X by storm (see Andrea Venanzoni’s piece in Il Foglio on 3 September), on Instagram there is his ‘ancient Roman’ version, with a few variations on the theme. Above the caption ‘Better friends than enemies. Robutin Vladicci’ is a photomontage of the general and Putin on horseback, both smiling and shirtless. In another image, the Russian president is pouring vodka for Vannacci; in yet another, they are eating spaghetti at the table. These images were circulated by Robertus Vannaccius, an account already shared by Vannacci and his supporters – often dismissed as ‘unrealistic satire’ – which in recent weeks has stepped up its pro-Putin (and anti-Meloni) output. Within the space of a day, dozens of Instagram stories appeared on his profile in which Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and the Ukrainian president are portrayed as cocaine addicts. First, a photo featuring two vacuum cleaners (labelled as the two political leaders), then two ‘Scarface’-style photomontages renamed ‘Cokraine’, in which they are shown facing a mountain of cocaine.

Russia Today, a Russian government-run television network already subject to EU restrictions, had used the same trick in June 2025. “Are you all right, Giorgia Meloni? Did you party too hard with Zelensky in The Hague?”, asked the RT profile whilst reposting a video in which the Prime Minister rubs her nose on the sidelines of the NATO summit. Today, that very same topic is being taken up by one of the world’s most popular content creators, Vannacci. Amidst the general silence. But not by the well-known influencer with links to right-wing circles, Robby Giusti, who on social media branded the accusations levelled at the Prime Minister as shameful: “I expect an immediate response from you, for you to say that these things do not represent you,” he said, addressing Vannacci.

The Prime Minister herself lit the fuse when, in an interview with Il Foglio, she laid down a very specific rule of engagement for the forthcoming centre-right coalition: there would be no backtracking on support for Kyiv. Vannacci’s supporters erupted in anger, and Robertus Vannaccius became a conveyor belt for Putinist propaganda. First, he posted a photo showing the general embracing Putin with the camera facing them; then a video of Zelensky and Meloni kissing passionately (caption: “Amongst little…dicks, we get on well”); and following an interview with Marco Travaglio: “Zelensky is a bit like a drug-addicted lad whose parents never had the courage to get him into rehab”. After criticizing Carlo Calenda (“another Ukraine-obsessed person”), he maintains it is all just a game: “They’re provocative memes. Some people like South Park-style shock humour.”

Users are rushing to flood the comments section with Russian flags and messages celebrating the Vannaccian-Putin alliance. And the local Fn committees are no different. The one in Lucera, for example, posted an AI-generated image of a smiling Zelensky. Behind him lie the ruins of a bombing raid, complete with a petrol pump showing a price of 3 euros per litre. “They told us that Putin is the villain. Meanwhile, when Europe banned us from using Russian resources, EVERYTHING went up in price,” the post reads. Another constituent committee with over 3,000 followers has turned the Financial Times’ accusations on their head: in an AI-generated photo, the Trojan horse takes the form of Calenda, with lots of little Zelenskys emerging whilst Guido Crosetto happily counts the ‘rearmament’ funds. “European families with no prospects? Don’t worry, Kyiv always comes first,” it reads.

Then, on 20 August, the ‘Futuro nazionale Roma’ page (20,000 followers) posted a reel in honour of Daria Dugina, a supporter of the Russian invasion who was killed in 2022 in an attack that was likely aimed at her father, Aleksandr Dugin, a Russian ultra-nationalist ideologue often described as close to the nationalist and imperialist circles that have supported Putin’s war. “We remember her for the cultural and human legacy she entrusted to a generation,” the post reads. “The idea of a new Europe – free, sovereign and capable of conceiving of itself within a multipolar world.”

There are even those who see the general as Putin’s political heir. “Can Vannacci perform the Italian miracle just as Putin did in Russia?”, asks rhetorically a committee of FN supporters with over 20,000 followers on TikTok. “Putin managed to lift the Russian Federation from rags to riches. It is now the leading economic power, solid and wealthy, and the Russian people live in prosperity,” the post continues: “When a nation is led by a resolute, determined and patriotic man, these are the results.” There are those, such as another Vannacci supporter with over 100,000 likes, who like to imagine the general shaking hands with a smiling Putin: “What if it really happened? The future isn’t set in stone, but it can be built.” In Piedmont, Elia Enoc, from the Fn committee in Pinerolo/Turin, shows his followers the “truth beyond European propaganda”, posting a video of Putin with Italian subtitles warning Europeans of the falsehoods spread by those who see him as a threat to them. The profile from which he takes the content is called “RussiaisntEnemy”, a concept that on TikTok is practically the core business of the profile “Il Generale al comando” (5,000 followers, over 73,000 likes and “Russia amica” in the bio). From fabricated statistics (“92 per cent of Italians side with Russia, not Ukraine. #vannaccipremier”) to conspiracy-theory attacks on the mainstream media: “If Kyiv says it, it’s news; if Moscow says it, is it propaganda? Our media only hear one side of the story”. He then shares quotes from Putin in which he claims to have no “aggressive plans against Europe”, complete with an olive branch resting on the table next to a Russian flag, before lashing out at Zelensky, portraying him whenever he can as a corrupt figure in the West’s pocket. “Poor Zelensky. Everyone around him is under investigation and he never notices a thing. Meanwhile, Europe keeps on paying. Giorgia, go and comfort him.” This is followed by further AI-generated graphics detailing ongoing investigations into Zelensky’s entourage (who is labelled a clown) and geographical claims artfully concocted in Moscow: “Ukraine has never existed; it is known only for scandals and perpetual corruption. Our enemies are in Europe.” The Italian and Russian tricolours fly alongside a myriad of little hearts and clasped hands.

In addition to their admiration for Putin, what links each of these posts is a persistent hashtag: #vannaccipremier. While, on the one hand, Meloni, Crosetto, Macron and many others are branded as “liars and accomplices” while singing beneath a Ukrainian flag, the general is pictured smiling in front of the Altar of the Fatherland in Rome: “They have declared war on Vannacci because they know he will never be their accomplice”.

Inside Vannacci’s Trojan horse are soldiers who can’t wait to get out. He himself provokes them by raising a shot of vodka in the face of the Financial Times, which accused him of being a tool of Moscow’s disinformation campaign. The post appeared on his official social media profile, but it is his followers who disseminate his messages across various platforms, often exaggerating them to the point of absurdity. An artificial absurdity, of course, in which satire is the pretext and energy security is often the justification. Whilst AI does the rest: it turns the dream of a reconciliation (and a spaghetti feast) with Putin into images, churning out a constant stream of ammunition against Meloni, Zelensky and anyone defending Kyiv. Vannacci’s MPs talk of the need to restore trade relations with Moscow, whilst Vannacci’s supporters do what the National Front’s representatives cannot do in public: support Putin by acting as a megaphone for insinuations and attacks.