This blog entry is the second in a three-part series focusing on  foreign fighters from Italy fighting for Russia in the war against Ukraine. The first entry described a network of neo-Nazi and neo-fascist extremists in Italy who fought on the side of Russia in occupied Ukraine and recruited foreign fighters from Italy. This second part focuses on the Russian links of the right-wing extremist networks in Italy, and the political networks they associated with. Part III will analyse the wider European political and martial arts networks these fighters belonged to. These networks have also functioned as bases for Russian recruitment as well as centers for radicalization into violent extremism.

Italian foreign fighters who travelled to Donbas to fight for the Russians beginning in 2014 were part of a wider network of pro-Russian political groups and activists in Italy. This article examines the links between the Italian foreign fighter network, the Kremlin, and right-wing political groups, political figures, and activists in northern Italy.

Political Linkages in Italy

In the 2018 Italian court case against the foreign fighters for Russia, prosecutors identified several individuals who were subjects of the investigation but not charged with any crimes. Two key figures identified in the report were: 

• Orazio Maria Gnerre, an Italian PhD student and founder of the neo-Eurasianist political group Millennium and a sham charity prosecutors identified as a front for mercenary recruitment, and
• Irina Osipova, a Russia-born translator whom prosecutors identified as a main figure connecting Italians with the Kremlin.

Orazio Maria Gnerre and Aleksandr Dugin

Gnerre had been in contact with Russian political philosopher Aleksandr Dugin since at least 2009 (when he was approximately 16 years of age). Dugin has played a uniquely central role connecting right wing extremist groups in Europe with Russia. The son of a Soviet GRU military intelligence officer, Dugin is best known as the leading ideologue of Neo-Eurasianism, an ultranationalist political philosophy that views Russia as the unifying force for the global right wing fight against the Western liberal world order.

Gnerre formed his Millennium organization in 2011, and travelled the following year to a conference in Brazil where he met Dugin in person. Subsequently Dugin visited Italy regularly to present at conferences.

Irina Osipova

Having grown up in Russia, Irina Osipova entered Italy as the daughter of Russian diplomat Oleg Osipov in 2004 (when she was approximately 16 years of age) and became a dual Italian-Russian citizen. Osipova served as a translator and as part of her work travelled to Moscow. In October 2014 she published an interview with Italian mercenary Andrea Palmeri, who fought with the pro-Russian neo-Nazi battalion “Rusich” in Donbas. In 2015 she posted a photo to Facebook of herself with the leader of the Rusich battalion at a conference in St. Petersburg which Gnerre also attended.

In 2019 Osipova passed a competition to become a parliamentary assistant in the Italian Senate, at which point two members of the European Parliament expressed concerns that she was a security risk, noting that “the Russian Federation has recently been stepping up activities such as espionage and interference in Italy.” In an interview Osipova characterized such concerns as a “stereotype,” as if “a Russian woman who talks about politics must be a spy.”

 Indicators of a broader pattern 

Prior to fleeing to Russia to avoid prison in Italy, Andrea Palmeri had been associated with right-wing political leaders in northern Italy. He was also in contact with Orazio Maria Gnerre and Irina Osipova, who in turn had direct contact with Aleksandr Dugin, and a host of Kremlin officials and Russian military and intelligence figures in Moscow and Donbas, as well as the members of the mercenary recruitment network in Italy. In 2019, when police uncovered massive stockpiles of weapons being trafficked by neo-fascist and neo-Nazi networks connected to the mercenary fighter and recruitment network in northern Italy, their arrests included a former Italian customs officer who had run for Italian senate with the neo-fascist political party Forza Nueova. It is thus clear that the pro-Russian Italian foreign fighters for Russia in Donbas belong to a wider network of right wing political figures in northern Italy with ties to the Kremlin. 

Recommendations

Due to his significant role as a contact network hub for the violent Russian and European right-wing extremist milieu, the European Union could continue to expand sanctions against Aleksandr Dugin’s network of influence.. In 2022 the European Commission sanctioned Dugin for supporting and justifying Russia’s annexation of Crimea and war of aggression against Ukraine. This included an EU travel ban and asset freeze.  The EU’s proposed 20th package of sanctions against Russia would expand sanctions against Dugin to include his operational network, media and social media outlets, and organizations through which he supplies funding for Kremlin propaganda in the EU. Hungary and Slovakia blocked the package on February 23, 2026. The expanded sanctions against Dugin’s network would help curtail Russian influence in Europe.

The creation of Hybrid Threat desks at domestic intelligence agencies could also be a useful step. These are domestic intelligence units that monitor threats across multiple domains from hostile actors such as extremist groups with foreign state sponsorship. Targeting could focus on domestic extremist groups with agendas that undermine liberal democracy and support the geopolitical objectives of hostile foreign states such as Russia, Iran, and China. 

Increase funding for EU-wide research on hybrid warfare in Europe. The case of the Italian foreign fighters for Russia and Italian right wing, pro-Russia political groups is just one instance of an EU-wide pattern of Russian hybrid warfare against the European Union.