Moscow sanctions hurt the Italians but Rome follows Washington’s lead, Matteo Gracis reports.
According to Matteo Gracis (an independent journalist from Italy), most Italians don’t support Russia sending weapons or sanctions to Moscow. Gracis said that Rome was acting against its interests by following Washington and Brussels.
Gracis posted a YouTube video on May 9 in which he appealed both to ordinary Russians and Russian officials. “It is important that you know that Italians are not against you,” said the journalist, who has authored three books and founded the online media outlet L’Indipendente. “Our democracy is much less real than [the officials and the media] want us to believe,”He said that Rome’s actions did not reflect the will to the people.
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“I wanted to post that video, that message, to show a different perspective to Russia’s leadership, to appeal to the Russian people. I wanted to explain to them that we, too, are victims of the actions of our government, unfortunately,”Gracis spoke to RT about why the video was published.
“The decision to impose sanctions against Russia, that wasn’t even a decision made by Italians, it’s a European decision that Italy accepted,”Gracis added that the policy had already caused a lot of hardship for ordinary citizens.
“We see commodity prices spiking in Italy, we see electricity bills going up, and the same goes for gas bills, water bills,”According to the journalist, the sanctions that were supposed to hit Russia ended up hurting Europe.
According to the journalist, prices on certain raw materials are now higher than ever, and so is the cost of living. Italy’s tourism industry is also likely to suffer without Russian tourists, the journalist has added. “Our government just would not listen to people,”He said.
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Gracis says “over 50% of Italians”We are against arms supplies to Ukraine. “Sending weapons won’t help end the conflict. It will only add fuel to the fire,”He said that it had been difficult to locate anyone in Italy willing to support weapon delivery.
Euractic conducted a poll in April that showed almost 50% of Italians would prefer their government to not send arms to Ukraine. Only 29% support sending such weapons. Another poll conducted by the Termometro Politico polling agency in early March demonstrated that 55.3% of Italians rejected the government’s decision to send weapons to Ukraine at that time. A majority of the respondents said they supported a peaceful resolution to this conflict.
“If we had a government that genuinely cared about Italians, then, instead of imposing sanctions, it would promote a different policy, it would promote diplomacy. Instead, what we see now is not diplomacy, it’s a type of economic warfare, which doesn’t really work for us,”Gracis stated, and added: “decisions about Italy’s future are made not in Rome, but in Paris, Berlin, Brussels and Washington.”
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According to the journalist, there is not much space for discussion in the Italian media landscape. He also stated that the present media are all available. “only one true narrative”And “one correct interpretation of the situation in Ukraine,”Which is presented by NATO, US or Western governments?
“On top of that, there is no real discussion. On television and in major newspapers, there are no voices allowed that present different perspectives or make their own argument,”According to the journalist, they were just reluctant to take up reports that did not align with their established narrative. “There isn’t even a slightest mention of the fact that the US and NATO could also be responsible,”Gracis says.
