COPASIR alarm on Wagner and migrants 2 years ago says Urso

(ANSA) - ROME, MAR 14 - Parliamentary intelligence service oversight commission COPASIR was already warning about Russian mercenary group Wagner's support for North African coups driving migrants to Italy two years ago, Business and Made in Italy Minister Adolfo Urso said Tuesday, a day after Defence Minister Guido Crosetto and Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani warned of Wagner's migrant-driving activities in several African nations.
    "I'm surprised that some people are surprised by what Wagner is doing in Africa since already two years ago (COPASIR) had alerted parliament in official reports, after classified fact-finding investigations on Russia's encircling action towards Europe," Urso said at a Rome conference on Italy's soft power.
    The current migrant boom which is hitting Italy harder than other countries is linked to pressure from the activity of Russian-paid Wagner mercenaries in Africa, Crosetto and Tajani said Monday.
    Crosetto said the rise in migrant departures from Africa is at least partially due to the "hybrid strategy" being employed by the Wagner group in a number of African countries.
    Wagner, which is best known at present for its role in Russia's invasion of Ukraine, is also active in Mali, Central African Republic, Sudan, Syria and Libya, where it backs Cyrenaica strongman General Khalifa Haftar.
    "It seems to me that by now it is safe to say that the exponential increase in the migratory phenomenon from the African coasts is also, to a not inconsiderable extent, part of a clear strategy of hybrid warfare that the Wagner division, mercenaries in the pay of Russia, is implementing, using its considerable weight in some African countries", said Crosetto.
    Tajani, for his part, speaking after talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem, voiced "concern" about the fact that "many migrants come from areas controlled by the Wagner group. I would not like there to be an attempt to push migrants towards Italy".
    Premier Giorgia Meloni said it was not right to let the Russian mercenary group run rampant in Africa, allegedly driving migrants to try to reach Italy.
    "Perhaps it would be easier to put our heads in the sand, to let mafiosi decide who should come to us, to let only those who have money to pay those mafiosi come to us, to let Wagner's mercenaries and fundamentalists continue to take hold in Africa," said Meloni at the presentation of a book on Pope Francis.
    Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin responded to Crosetto's claim that the Russian mercenary group was driving migration from several African countries to Italy by saying that the group did not deal with migrants.
    "Crosetto should look less in other directions and deal with his problems, which he probably has not managed to solve. We are not au fait with what is happening with the migratory crisis, we don't deal with it, we have a heap of problems of our own to cope with," he said.
    Prigozhin called Crosetto a 'mudak', a Russian term literally meaning testicle but used to mean d**khead or a**hole. (ANSA).