Ukraine, Inzerilli (former Gladio boss): “I’m with Putin, the problem of war is Zelensky”

“I believe that no one can have doubts about my anti-Russian sentiment, but this time I am rather perplexed and more ‘Putinian’ than ‘Zeleskyan’. I am more on Putin’s side than on Zelensky’s ”. Thus begins, speaking with AdnKronos, General Paolo Inzerilli, Chief of Staff of SISMI and for 12 years commander of ‘Gladio’, a secret military structure belonging to the international Stay-behind network created to counter a possible invasion in Western Europe by the Soviet Union. “I have two points, history and geography – explains the General -, but generally people avoid remembering what happened in the past. Russia, since it was tsarist, has always been an uncomfortable country because it has always felt surrounded, in some way blocked, they felt they did not have freedom of movement. With the Soviet Union it was the same, because NATO was created against the eventual Soviet expansionism. The situation, therefore, has been handed down. Everything that is happening now, therefore, is always due to the fact that Russia, no longer the Soviet Union, is afraid, feels surrounded by hostile countries. And the president of Ukraine, Zelensky, in my opinion makes a show of strength when in fact all that Russia has asked for is the official declaration of non-entry of Ukraine into NATO and the demilitarization of the country. Well, they don’t seem like absurd requests to me, but Zelensky doesn’t want to know ”. The absurdity, for General Inzerilli, lies elsewhere: “A couple of weeks ago – he says – the NATO Atlantic Council met, and the mass media, reporting a statement by Secretary General Stoltenberg made before the meeting, wrote ‘Stoltenberg freezes Ukraine ‘, in the sense that according to the secretary general there was no topic on the agenda concerning Ukraine’s entry into NATO. It is therefore Zelensky who wants to show that he is smart, good, super independent, whatever the cost, which for a Head of State seems slightly insane to me. But if they told him officially that at the moment there is no mention of it, why hasn’t he been good and quiet, without getting upset, instead of causing this chaos to erupt? The Russian army against the Ukrainian one… it’s funny ”. For the former boss of ‘Gladio’, however, there is another important point. “Before the conflict began, the United States said that if Russia invaded Ukraine, they, as the United States and not as NATO, would intervene to defend it. Then they changed their declarations, starting to talk about sending aid, which means money, and it’s very different ”. “This is why – the General states without delay – evaluating the current situation I feel more Russian than Ukrainian, because I always think that the task of a president of a country is first of all to save the skin of citizens and not to carry out acts of strength for a freedom that in practice exists and which, according to Zelensky, does not exist “. Putin’s final goal, for General Inzerilli, is therefore clear: “He just wants to make sure that the NATO countries do not have the border. If Ukraine joined NATO it would mean having the missiles 180 kilometers from Moscow, and honestly I want to see who has something to protest. I don’t mean cannon fire, but with today’s missiles 180 kilometers is a ridiculous distance. Ukraine, therefore, makes its own history ”. At this point, how does hostilities stop? “I believe that no one at this moment is willing to get killed to block Putin – General Inzerilli observes -, so today NATO should grant Putin the demilitarization of Ukraine together with an official declaration of non-entry into NATO. There is no war, with thousands of deaths already on both sides, for a first principle of one side, not a first principle of the world ”. Also because, adds the General, “the nuclear risk could be serious, but even there beware of fake news. Newspapers and TV say that the Russians bombed the nuclear power plant and that there was no death. Now, as far as I know, given the job I have done, a bombing may not kill anyone, but it certainly destroys the target, but no accident was destroyed here. If they bombed, then they devastated the plant, which is intact. Then there is something that doesn’t quail ”. Putin’s aggression against Ukraine surprised almost everyone, and General Inzerilli is no exception: “I did not expect what is happening would happen, neither on one side nor on the other – he says -, but on principle one wants the freedom to do what he wants, the other on principle wants the guarantee of not having ‘enemies’, or at least ‘no friends’, at the gates, it was clear that the two things were rather irreconcilable. The fact is that Putin’s determination, also based on the strength of his own army, clashes with the principle of not having impositions from third countries ”. As for the consequences that the very harsh sanctions imposed on Moscow could provoke an anti Putin revolt, up to the betrayal and his elimination by the secret services or in any case by someone very close to him, General Inzerilli observes: “It would seem strange to me. The only time the rulers of Russia were ousted was in the time of the Tsars, something like this has never happened again. On the other hand, today the 007 of Kiev killed one of their negotiators because they were considered a spy ”. At the end of the chat with AdnKronos, the General focuses on Gladio, the anti-Soviet structure he directed for 12 years: “Well, at the time we were certainly right – he says -, we knew the danger signals coming from the Soviet Union. Today, however, it does not seem to me that it can be said that Russia is our enemy. Relationships, post-Cold War, of course, have always been quiet. They are still killing each other, but gas from Russia, passing through Ukraine, continues to arrive in Western Europe. So what enemy? ”. A long reasoning, that of General Inzerilli with AdnKronos, which ends in the only possible way: “As far as I am concerned today, the problem of this war is called Zelensky”.