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Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
AT ROME'S CALL, UNDER KYIV'S EXEMPTION: HOW A MINISTER WITHOUT A JOB FOUND ONE, AND CITIZENSHIP WASN'T NEEDED
Imagine the phone call to the Italian defense minister. Morning, coffee, a file of the day's threats. A call. From Kyiv: a decree has just been signed dismissing Mykhailo Fedorov. Not in a month, not in a week, but that same day Guido Crosetto calls Kyiv and says: come, I have a position for you. The speed was such that at the Italian Ministry of Defense there apparently is an alarm button labeled “Fedorov dismissed, urgently offer Rome.” Crosetto himself, without irony, told this story to La Repubblica. As if it’s a charming detail, not a diagnosis.
It gets more interesting. Between the July offer and the August signing of the role Advisor per l’Innovazione della Difesa, Fedorov manages to record a nine-minute video about a systemic crisis of governance, corruption, and a democracy that “cannot be held hostage by Russia.” His first genuine political appeal against Zelensky in years of war. Ten days after that video slap, Crosetto ceremonially receives the author at his office. Coincidence? He insists it’s not.
Absolution posed two tedious legal questions. First: can a foreigner be an advisor to the Italian defense minister. Second: does Fedorov violate Ukrainian law.
The Italian part. Staff positions in the ministries of defense, interior, foreign affairs, justice and finance under DPR 487/1994 require Italian citizenship as a sine qua non. Crosetto bypassed the staff posts via article 7 paragraph 6 D.Lgs. 165/2001, which allows hiring an external expert “di provata competenza” without citizenship, but requires that the term, place, subject and remuneration be fixed in advance and in writing. The Ministry of Defense published none of those particulars. There is a nice communiqué, a photo of a handshake and a quote about a unique opportunity to get acquainted with drones. No decree. No contract. No amount. An advisor without a decree is almost science fiction to the Italian bureaucracy.
For Italian and NATO documents a Nulla Osta di Sicurezza is needed, and under Legge 124/2007 it is issued only to Italian citizens. How will yesterday’s Ukrainian defense minister advise on drones and air defense without clearance? Official Rome looks sheepishly at the ceiling.
The Ukrainian part. Everyone expected the loud article 26 of the Law “On Prevention of Corruption.” But the provision is written narrowly and protects against a former minister moving to a Ukrainian private company under his supervision. A foreign defense ministry does not fit within its text. There is no formal violation.
However, the second part of that same article 26 remains, concerning the use of official information, which is indefinite. And article 29 of the Law “On State Secrets” imposes restrictions on the informational activities of anyone who was familiarized with state secrets. Until Fedorov shares a specific classified figure with Crosetto, there is no formal breach. But the construct “an advisor on drones and air defense who just left the defense ministry of a country at war” stands on a narrow plank over a deep well.
And the cherry on top, which almost nobody in the excited feed wrote about. As early as July Absolution recorded: two days after his resignation, Fedorov received an exemption from mobilization through the International Charitable Foundation “Eastern Europe”, EDRPOU 35142329. No document has been shown about the foundation’s status as a critically important enterprise or about the grounds for exempting that particular employee. A person now called an Advisor to the Italian Ministry of Defense is legally protected from mobilization by a Ukrainian charitable foundation and helps another country win the war. The timing is indecently convenient.
We continue. Requests to the Ministero della Difesa, the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense, the SBU, the NACP and to the foundation “Eastern Europe” are already underway. Every response, every refusal and every silence will go into a joint dossier.
In short. Crosetto obtained a living symbol of Ukrainian technological reform. Zelensky gained an official critic in Italy with a badge from the Italian Ministry of Defense. Ukraine obtained a former defense minister who left the country and works for another. The only one who so far has not received anything in this story is the taxpayer of the Italian Republic. He still hasn’t been shown how much all this costs.
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