Russian Wagner Group puts €15m bounty on Italian minister’s head

An Italian minister and Kremlin critic has been warned of a €15 million (£13.1 million) bounty put on his head by Russia.

Russia’s feared Wagner Group has reportedly placed the bounty on Italy’s defence minister, who warned this week that the mercenary outfit is using migrants as a form of hybrid warfare against Italy.

Italian intelligence services discovered the existence of the bounty on Guido Crosetto about 10 days ago, according to Il Foglio newspaper.

Mr Crosetto earlier this week accused Wagner mercenaries based in Libya of encouraging migrants and refugees to head to Italy as a means of destabilising the country and punishing it for its staunch support for Ukraine.

The order to assassinate the minister could be carried out by Wagner Group cells based in Serbia or Estonia, the Italian daily claimed.

In January, Dmitry Medvedev, the former president of Russia who is now vice-president of the Kremlin’s security council, called Mr Crosetto a “rare fool” after the defence minister spoke of the importance of giving Ukraine the weapons it needs to resist Russian aggression.

Italy has come in for plenty of abuse from Russia since the invasion, including from Sergei Razov, the Russian ambassador to Rome, and Sergei Lavrov, the foreign minister.

There has been a huge surge in the number of migrants reaching Italian shores so far this year. More than 20,000 have arrived, which is triple the number who arrived in the same period last year.

“I think it is now safe to say that the exponential increase in the migratory phenomenon departing from African shores is also, to a not insignificant extent, part of a clear strategy of hybrid warfare that the Wagner division is implementing, using its considerable weight in some African countries,” Mr Crosetto said earlier this week.

'More dangerous every day'

He said Nato and the rest of the EU need to understand that “the southern European front is becoming more dangerous every day”.

“They should also realise that uncontrolled and continuous immigration, added to the economic and social crisis, is becoming a way to hit the most exposed countries, first and foremost Italy, and their geo-strategic choices, clear and sharp.”

Responding to the accusations, the head of the Wagner Group, called Mr Crosetto “a d-----d”. Yevgeny Prigozhin used the Russian word “mudak”, which means testicle but is often used as an insult along the lines of d-----d or a------e.

“Crosetto should look less in other directions and deal with his problems, which he probably has not managed to solve,” said the Wagner boss.

“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.”

Mr Crosetto downplayed the reports of a bounty.

“I want to reiterate ... I do not feel threatened and I am sure that there are no bounties on my head. If there were risks or threats of such gravity, I’m sure I would have been informed, and that has not happened,” he wrote on Twitter on Thursday.

“I’m sure that no one will go beyond the usual trashy insults.”