Russia’s threat to Europe extends beyond defense to illegal immigration and cybersecurity, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said on Dec. 22 during an international meeting in Finland.
"It's about our democracy, it's about influencing our public opinion, it's about what happens in Africa, it's about raw materials, it's about the instrumentalization of migration. We need to know it's a very wide idea of security," Meloni was quoted as saying by Reuters.
Russia and Belarus have been orchestrating an influx of migrants since 2021, letting thousands of asylum seekers to the European Union’s eastern borders with a pledge of safe entry into the EU.
In November 2021, Belarusian troops escorted thousands of asylum seekers to the Polish border, cutting through the wire fence to allow refugees to cross. Most of them were violently pushed back by Polish border guards who set up a no-access zone at the border for nine months.
Italy's right-wing prime minister urged the EU to view migration as a distributive problem as well as a security one.
"Security also means critical infrastructure, it means artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, raw materials, supply chains. It means a new and more effective foreign and cooperation policy, it means migration," Meloni said.
Meloni cautioned against complacency in the EU, adding that even after Russia’s war in Ukraine ends, its security challenge will not go away.
"We have to understand the threat is much wider than we imagine," Meloni said.
Tensions between Europe and Moscow have surged after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The EU imposed 15 packages of sanctions against Russia, and most of its members provided military support to Kyiv.
In turn, Russia has been accused of carrying out sabotage operations and hybrid attacks across the continent to disrupt defense assistance to Ukraine and spread chaos and unrest.
The Kyiv Independent news desk
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