Karl Zilliken In Putin's Russia's "blacklist" of wanted individuals, there's also a man from Vicenza. Renzo Folco, 73 years old, originally from Montecchio Maggiore. The files were collected and published by Mediazona, a Russian collective for counter-information, and contain tens of thousands of names. The names of Italians were relayed by digital communicator and cyber propaganda expert Alex Orlowski on X and Facebook.
Over 96,000 individuals appear on the leaked list from the Moscow Ministry of Internal Affairs, compiled by the Mediazona portal. The list includes names such as Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas and around forty Ukrainian politicians, as well as top officials from the Kiev army. Additionally, there are Polish mayors, 100 Georgians, 93 British citizens, 61 Belarusians, 23 Israelis, and 21 Americans.
The list is mostly (98%) composed of names of people living in former USSR countries: Russians, but also citizens of Baltic republics and Ukrainians, among others. The Italians on the list are 25, including the Vicenza native and another Venetian, Giulia Schiff, the former pilot from Venice already known for joining the Ukrainians to fight alongside them. The information about Folco, gathered from the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs database, is concise. From what has been learned, it means that the 73-year-old, after being included in the wanted list, managed to get out, only to be included again in the MVD database. According to some cross-research, it seems that many Russian citizens are in the same situation and seek information on what to do, finding no definite answers even from lawyers and law experts who invite them to contact the ministry directly. Folco is said to have moved to Brescia and is not the namesake, a few years older, who still resides under the castles of Romeo and Juliet and who has been overwhelmed by many phone calls in recent hours. There is little information left by Folco on his Facebook profile, where Vicenza is indicated as his hometown and Brescia as his current city. It is stated that he studied at the State Pedagogical University of Mozyr in Belarus. Among the social media "friends" is one of the other Italians who ended up on Putin's blacklist: Giovanni Scaroni, also from Brescia, who allegedly resides in Lumezzane. Going back to Folco, he is said to have been a working partner of the Interservice arl cooperative, closed in 2009, which allegedly had its headquarters in the city for twenty years. Mediazona presented its "leak" as follows: "We collected all the search notices from the database on the Ministry of Internal Affairs website and found that Russia is actively seeking not only dozens of European politicians and officials with criminal charges, but also a head of state: Kaja Kallas, the Estonian prime minister." An important piece of work, considering the risks for those who are not aligned with the single thought, like activist Alexei Navalny, who, after being imprisoned and subjected to a sham trial, mysteriously lost his life in prison last Friday. But what did those names do to end up on the list? Orlowski answers on X: "Defending democracy."
(GdV, lunedì 19 febbraio)