Russian aid arrives in Italy, in total 15 planeloads with 60 tons of cargo each, to help fighting Covid-19.

Italy has engaged in a war of words with Russia over allegations Moscow hid spies among doctors it had sent to the country's coronavirus epicentre near Milan. The team is part of a large-scale Russian operation to assist Italy in its fight against Covid-19. EU critics say Moscow has a hidden agenda. Russia strongly denies the charges.

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Planeloads filled with Russian aid arrived last week in northern Italy - the area that the virus hit hardest in the world - to help fighting the country's Covid-19 crisis.

According to the website of the Kremlin, Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conti requested Russia’s help during a telephone conversation on March 21st with Russian president Vladimir Putin.

It’s also a propaganda operation that reinforces the idea that Italy did not get any help from the EU or from Nato allies. Podcast: Interview with Sergio Germani, director of the Gino Germani Institute for Social Sciences in Rome

According to the Russian embassy in London, the Russian defence ministry delivered 15 planeloads to Italy with 60 tons of cargo each, 122 experts, including 66 servicemen "of the radiological, chemical and biological defence troops," eight teams of doctors, and one full laboratory.

But some observers in Italy are skeptical.

“Probably the assistance is useful to some extent,” says Sergio Germani, director of the Gino Germani Institute for Social Sciences and Strategic Studies (GGISS), a Rome-based think tank.

Intelligence activities

“But there are (a lot) of Russian military officers. The concern is that they would include Russian military intelligence representatives that could take advantage of this opportunity to undertake intelligence activities.

The Russian aid arrives in Italy, but some claim Russia has a hidden agenda. Russian Defence Ministry/AFP

“It’s also a propaganda operation that is aimed at Italian public opinion and reinforces the idea that Italy did not get any help from the EU or from Nato allies and that only countries like China and Russia are really helping,” he says.

After the arrival of the Russian military in Italy, Italy's La Stampa newspaper on April 2 quoted former Nato chemical weapons expert Hamish De Bretton-Gordon, saying that "without a doubt, there are GRU officers among them".

“The objective of Moscow, and possibly of the Chinese is the weakening, and possibly the collapse, of the European Union,” says Germani, whose institute, the GGISS, studies the influence of Russian propaganda and pro-Moscow media on the internet.

'Kill elderly Italians'

The Russian aid operation, he says, went accompanied by a surge of pro-Russian articles, videos and tweets.

According to EU vs Disinfo, a European Commission watchdog against fake news, pro-Kremlin media outlets like Sputnik news agency and internet “troll-factories” are responsible for spreading unsubstantiated rumors.

In an article dated March 31st, the Latvian version of Sputnik published a story suggesting that the coronavirus was created in EU-member state Latvia “designed to kill elderly Italians.”

“These are the messages they are pushing,” says Germani “ - that the EU is incapable, that it is crumbling and that the EU does not exist anymore,”

“They are messages that discredit liberal democracy as a form of government that is incapable of dealing with this kind of crisis,” he says.

Russia was quick to hit back at the criticism.

Attacking the British press, that also reported on the article in La Stampa, the Russian embassy in London deplored that journalists are “seeking to find discrepancies and a hidden agenda in Russian humanitarian assistance rendered to ... Italy in order to help them combat the coronavirus pandemic,” stressing that “this help is free of charge and humanitarian by nature. It is a sign of our solidarity with the Italian people, not linked to any political agenda.”

Europe steps up coordination

On March 31st, EU leaders announced a concerted Roadmap" and an "Action Plan" to deal with the crisis. "The only way forward is a common strategy in a spirit of solidarity," said EU Council President Charles Michel.

“The EU is beginning to respond positively to this major challenge," says Germani.

"They are moving in the right direction, because they are now aware of the fact that the Kremlin is trying to exploit the emergency," he says.

Russian air cargo carrier Volga-Dnepr dedicates itself to assisting aid to Cover-19 struck areas © Volga-Dnepr website screen grab

Russia works hand-in-glove with China in a combined attempt to assist Covid-19 hit regions around the world.



While China produces hundreds of millions of face masks and thousands of ventilators, Russia steps in with the Volga-Dnepr air cargo operator, which runs the world’s largest fleet of mammoth Antonov 124 planes, transporting Chinese virusfighting products to Italy, Spain, the US and other places.



Last week, a Volga-Dnepr-run Antonov 124 arrived at Paris’ Charles de Gaulle airport loaded with 10 million Chinese face masks and other produce, part of an order of an order of 1 billion, ordered by the French government.



Other Volga-Dnepr-run Antonov 124 fligths went to Milan, Bologna and Reno, in the US. Another cargo monster plane of the company, the Ilyushin IL76, flew missions to Madrid.



Largest military transport aircraft



The Antonov plane manufacturer produces the biggest aircraft in the world. Th Antonov 124, developed in the 1980s in the former Soviet Union is with a wingspan of 73,3 meters the largest military transport aircraft in current service. Volga-Dnepr, which started operating in 1991, quickly grew out to become Russia’s – and the world’s – largest super bulk air carrier, with twelve Antonov 124s as the core of its fleet. The biggest ever airplane is the monstrous Antonov 225 (wingspan 88,4 meter,) the design based on the Antonov 124. The only existing model is currently employed by the civilian Antonov Airlines in Ukraine and currently also used to transport Chinese medical equipment to countries in need.



Meanwhile, Russia's Volga-Dnepr worked with the United Nations, flying numerous humanitarian missions, but the company was suspended from a list of approved vendors in 2007 after two Russian U.N. officials were prosecuted for steering contracts to the airline in exchange for bribes, according to a report by the US House of Representatives’ Oversight Committee.



And in 2015, the US Transport Command removed the company from its vendor list as sanctions for alleged violations of treaties that banned the spread of missile technologies. The measures came one year after Russia’s annexation of the Crimea peninsula.



Last year, due to a downturn in cargo shipments world wide, the company had to mothball four from its twelve Antonovs, but Volga-Dnepr may have gotten a boost as a result of Russian and Chinese orders for flights aimed at helping Covid-19 hit places around the globe.







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