2023-04-16 16:12:36
Kremlin narratives have few prominent supporters in the West. Now the propaganda apparatus has found a real princess for it – and she is the president of a German association.
When the Russian propaganda apparatus recently launched a new world association of Russia supporters in Moscow’s Pushkin Museum, illustrious guests were present. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, the Christian fundamentalist oligarch Konstantin Malofeev with his fascist mastermind Alexander Dugin, who directs Malofeev’s media, actor Steven Seagal and former AfD member of the Bundestag Waldemar Herdt, who even gave a speech.
So far, little attention has been paid to the fact that a Sicilian princess was among the participants: Vittoria Alliata di Villafranca. She introduced herself as President of the German-Arab Society (DAG) and said she advocated a “message of peace”. But it didn’t stop there: She accused German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock of standing up for women’s rights abroad, spoke of organized hatred of Russia in order to dominate the world, and blamed the USA for the mafia in Italy to subjugate the country.
The Sicilian comes from a dynasty of Byzantine rulers that is said to date back to the 5th century. The princess is considered the “Woman of the Rings” in Italy for having translated JRR Tolkien’s novel into Italian. She is an orientalist, speaks six other languages in addition to Arabic and writes travel and lifestyle novels.
And since February she has been President of the German-Arab Society. This is a long-established international lobby group in Germany, at times it had a big name, influence and well over 1,100 members. Prominent representatives from all major political parties were represented in the Presidium. Former Federal Minister Jürgen Möllemann was its president, as was journalism icon Peter Scholl-Latour.
But now the princess’ appearance at the founding event of the so-called “International Russophile Movement” casts a bad light on society. In the future, the new pro-Russian movement is to set up associations abroad to promote Russian interests.
Putin’s princess attacks Baerbock
Unsurprisingly, Alliata’s speech was also unsurprising: she said, for example, that the West had started wiping out Russian culture a year ago. Hatred of Russia was deliberately orchestrated and a new doctrine “enacted by the Anglo-Saxons to dominate the whole world and exploit natural resources.” Putin finds her nicer than Biden, but she’s not interested in personal sympathies. After all, she is friends with Obama’s step-sister, she told the British “Guardian,” to whom she introduced herself as a representative of German-Arab society.
She didn’t want to answer a question regarding Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine: “I’m not an expert in this field.” Russian media also introduced her as the head of DAG and quoted her as making statements regarding German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock. She refuses to name the German Annalena Baerbock (Greens) for the concept of feminist foreign policy. It pursues the idea that it makes the world more crisis-proof if the still prevailing structural disadvantages of women are taken into account worldwide.
In Moscow, the princess explained that women are the main driver of undermining “traditional values”. With this statement she is quoted in a medium by the billionaire Malofeev, who sees Russia itself as a guarantor for the preservation of “traditional values”. Contrasted with this is the “dictates of a country that imposes anti-Christian, anti-human, satanic abominations” – the USA. At the event, he promoted Russophilia because Russia and the Russians promoted “resistance to the new, liberal fascism[führen]which in its Russophobia and misanthropy is comparable to Hitler’s Nazism”.
German-Arab Society reacts
The negative position towards more women’s rights is likely to have supporters in the German-Arab Society. The ambassadors of the Arab countries sit on the advisory board. But what does the DAG say regarding the pro-Russian statements made by its president?
Harald Bock was a co-founder of the German-Arab Society almost 60 years ago and is still its Secretary General today. On the phone, Bock initially speaks highly of the new president and comments benevolently on her appearance in Moscow, even if he does not have individual statements. When t-online later presented his quotes to him for authorization, he refused to release them and stopped responding.
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