Petrocelli, Alemanno, Marco Rizzo and the Northern League members. Who are Paramonov’s friends?

Rome. Aleksej Paramonov’s cosmonauts are here. They exist. They are the Italian friends of the ambassador. Moscow’s ‘bad teachers’ tell us all about them. And so here is Vito Petrocelli: first to cross the finish line of his heart. Do you remember him? Now president of the Italy-BRICS Institute, Petrocelli was the Five Star Movement member once nicknamed ‘Petrov’. Floor leader of the group in the Senate, then chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee, and again group leader at Palazzo Madama, he was the first person in that role to be expelled from Parliament (he was protesting against the Jobs Act). Anyone who has met Paramonov in recent weeks – at the Milan conference with Matteo Salvini – knows that the two are on good terms. It is no coincidence that, four years ago, ‘Petrov’ walked out of the joint session and the video link with Zelensky. Shortly afterwards, he described Italy as a ‘co-belligerent country’. Sceptical about the cultural genocide of the Uyghurs, Petrov is certainly cosmopolitan but also a bit of a ‘taikonaut’, in the sense that he loves Beijing no less than Moscow.

The Tass report, however, spoke of warm relations with the Five Star Movement and the National Front. Although, within the General’s party, the man is more a figure from the nation’s past than of the future. The contacts, specifically, are with Vannacci’s maverick adviser. With the former mayor of Rome, Gianni Alemanno, who had met him before serving his sentence at Rebibbia. “We met just before I went to prison,” he told us, “but I certainly wouldn’t have any problem meeting him again now, nor in telling you so.” (More recently, however, Marco Rizzo saw him: the old-school communist who invited him at the start of the year to the congress of Democrazia Sovrana e Popolare).

However, although Tass did not mention it, the ambassador’s favourite is, first and foremost, the Carroccio: the ‘caviar League’. The men who shook his hand – and who introduced him to Salvini – are, in fact, members of Lombardia-Russia. To be clear: this is the organisation set up by former spokesperson Gianluca Savoini, who was present a few weeks ago in Milan when the secretary met the delegation of Italian businesspeople in Russia. Foremost among them was Vittorio Torrembini: the president of Gim Unimpresa, who organised the event and told us about Paramonov’s visit to the hotel near Central Station.

Against a backdrop of blinis with smetana and exchanges on Telegram, relations remain cordial. This is particularly true with Claudio D’Amico, head of the association’s ‘project development’ and a party member since 1991, as well as with treasurer and co-founder Luca Bertoni. D’Amico, a former regular on state television and the Russia Today network, was once Salvini’s strategic adviser at the Prime Minister’s Office. Bertoni, a former member of the wing closest to Moscow, has for years promoted forums against sanctions and managed commercial and political relations with the Kremlin. One, a former MP and councillor in Sesto San Giovanni, remains an active party member. The other, following the ‘Metropol’ affair, is no longer a party member. However, it would be a mistake to assume that they are merely former members of a defunct Lega that ended badly: the ‘caviar Lega’. They are not a Komsomol that has aged badly, but remain the connecting link—the now-matured ambassadors of the Carroccio around the world.