On 9 February 2022 an online press conference was held in the Italian parliament by Matteo Dall'Osso, an MP of the Forza Italia party, on the theme "The right of peoples to self-determination. Abkhazia and Greater Europe" in which the leader of the Sukhumi separatists Aslan Bzhania also "remotely" participated.

A scandal with a recent speech of the separatist so-called President of Abkhazia Aslan Bzhania at the videoconference with an Italian parliamentarian forces us to take a closer look at the processes that are taking place in Italy.

The thing is that in Italy we are dealing with a kind of "testing ground" where geopolitical scenarios that are spreading to other countries are tested.

Everyone remembers that the first panic and total public scare in connection with the coronavirus pandemic was practised precisely in Italy. Nothing good came out of the "super measures for quarantines, "security", etc. in the end for Italy, but it was Italy that "scared" people in other countries, forcing them to follow not always sensible restrictive measures.

However, as it turns out, Italy is not only a proving ground for fear-mongering over epidemics. What is much more interesting is that Italy has become one of the first European countries where separatists are regularly part of government coalitions and take part in government.

It is worth recalling the peculiarities of separatism in Italy. Economically Italy is extremely unevenly developed. Its major industrial centres and most developed areas are in the north, its economic capital is not Rome, but northern Milan; living standards are higher in the north than in the south.

Southern Italy is in a chronic economic depression, living on subsidies and characterised by high unemployment. Welfare benefits and civil servants' salaries are the same all over the country. Thus, the separatist movements began to develop in the late 1980s out of dissatisfaction of the rich northerners with the fact that they had to "feed and support" both the poor people in the south of the country and the numerous Roman bureaucracy.

The best known and most influential of these is the so-called League of the North, which advocates the separation of the northern regions of Italy from the united Italian state and the creation of the so-called "Republic of Padania" on their basis. Despite the apparent hostility of this party to the very idea of a united Italian statehood, it not only takes part in national elections, but has a significant number of seats in parliament and is a regular member of the government coalition.

 Paradoxically, in 2018-19 one of the Northern League's leaders, Matteo Salvini, served as deputy prime minister and interior minister of Italy. This is about the same as if, for example, the Tskhinvali puppet Bibilov was head of the Georgian Interior Ministry. The separatists are still in power in Italy. On 13 February 2021, ministers of Mario Draghi's cabinet, in which the League of the North was given three ministerial posts without portfolio, were sworn in.

Understandably, without powerful patrons, the separatists would not feel so confident in Italy "just like that". The success of the separatist "League of the North" is largely due to its ties with allies and permanent political partners - the "Forward Italy - Forza Italia" movement of Silvio Berlusconi, who is known for his good relations with Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

"Forward Italy - Forza Italia movement of which MP Matteo Dal Osso gave words to Sukhumi separatists at the press conference that was held on February 9th 2022. Many analysts believe that this is also a political force that supports separatism. But Forza Italia does not openly declare this in order not to lose the votes of voters in central and southern Italy, as well as those citizens in the north of the country who are in favour of its unity.

But the secessionists, overt and covert, also have powerful patrons in Italy. According to some reports, this is the Vatican, which is the last thing it needs is a strong united Italy. The less Italy is influenced by the central government, the greater the influence of the Vatican. In fact, this is a continuation of the same policy that popes have been pursuing since the Middle Ages, trying in every way to prevent the unification of Italy.

And the Vatican, as we know, is also one of the main patrons of the Armenian lobby. It is no coincidence that it was in Italy that the notorious Arsen Avakov, who was forced to leave Ukraine after law enforcement agencies came to grips with his abuses as governor of Kharkiv, was entrenched. Avakov returned to Ukraine in 2014 and it was with Vatican patronage that he then served as interior minister for seven years. Therefore, the "presentation" of the Sukhumi separatists in Italy was not done without the Armenian lobby that had its eye on Georgian Abkhazia. And it is unlikely that the Vatican, which has also repeatedly been seen supporting separatism in various regions of the world, was involved.

However, it is unlikely that through Italy the separatists in Sukhumi and Tskhinvali will be "legitimised" in Europe. Firstly, the international situation today is such that it is obvious to all what evil separatism represents.

Secondly, in Italy itself many residents are increasingly displeased with the separatism as a phenomenon that destroys unity of the country. And politicians are forced to respond to that sentiment. As a result, the Italian parliamentary party Forza Italia (Forward, Italy) itself dissociated itself from the actions of MP Matteo Dal Osso.

Valentino Valentini, vice-president of the parliamentary group Forza Italia and parliamentarian in charge of international relations made the following statement: "We learned about the press conference held today by Hon.

Abkhazia and Greater Europe". In this regard, we clarify that this is a purely personal initiative of Matteo Dal Osso, which does not reflect the position of Italy, nor of Forward Italy. In line with the policy that our country has always maintained, we firmly support the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Georgia and do not recognise the de facto authorities of the regions of "South Ossetia" and Abkhazia, nor their representatives, with whom we do not consider it appropriate to maintain contact".

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