Silvio Berlusconi was an Italian media tycoon and politician who served as the prime minister of Italy in four governments from 1994 to 1995,2001 to 2006 and 2008 to 2011. He was a member of the Chamber of Deputies from 1994 to 2013;a member of the Senate of the Republic from 2022 until his death in 2023,and previously from March to November 2013;and a member of the European Parliament (MEP) from 2019 to 2022,and previously from 1999 to 2001. With a net worth of US$6.8 billion as of June 2023,Berlusconi was the third-wealthiest person in Italy at the time of his death.
Romano Prodi is an Italian politician who served as President of the European Commission from 1999 to 2004 and twice as Prime Minister of Italy,from 1996 to 1998,and again from 2006 to 2008. Prodi is considered the founder of the Italian centre-left and one of the most prominent figures of the Second Republic. He is often nicknamed Il Professore due to his academic career.
Jean-Louis Bruguière was the leading French investigating magistrate in charge of counter-terrorism affairs. He was appointed in 2004 vice-president of the Paris Court of Serious Claims. He has garnered controversy for various acts,including the indictment of Rwandan president Paul Kagame for the assassination in 1994 of Juvenal Habyarimana. Washington Post journalist Dana Priest has cited him as saying that he had in the past ordered the arrest of more than 500 suspects,some with the assistance of US authorities. According to the investigative reporter,who described the workings of Alliance Base,a CTIC joint counter-terrorist operations center,involving the DGSE,the CIA and other foreign intelligence agencies,Bruguière declared that "[he had] good connections with the CIA and FBI." Bruguière has since temporarily left his judicial functions to dedicate himself to politics,joining Nicolas Sarkozy's Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) conservative party. However,he was appointed by the European Union at the US Department of Treasury to oversee the Terrorist Finance Tracking Program.
Gerard Joseph Batten is a British politician who served as the Leader of the UK Independence Party (UKIP) from 2018 to 2019. He was a founding member of the party in 1993,and served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for London from 2004 to 2019.
Marco Travaglio is an Italian journalist,writer,and pundit. Since 2015,he has been the editor-in-chief of the independent daily newspaper Il Fatto Quotidiano. Travaglio began his journalistic career in the late 1980s under Indro Montanelli at Il Giornale and La Voce,then in the 2000s worked at La Repubblica and L'Unità,before becoming one of the founders of Il Fatto Quotidiano in 2009. He is also the author of many books and a columnist for several other national newspapers and magazines,his main interests have been judicial reporting and current affairs and politics,dealing with issues ranging from the fight against the Italian Mafia to corruption.
Armando Cossutta was an Italian communist politician. After World War II,Cossutta became one of the leading members of the Italian Communist Party (PCI),representing the most pro-Soviet Union tendency;his belief in that country as the leading Communist state led him to criticize Enrico Berlinguer. Later in life,although he did not regret the choice he made,Cossutta considered that he was mistaken in opposing Berlinguer.
Sabina Guzzanti is an Italian satirist,actress,writer,and producer whose work is devoted to examining social and political life in Italy.
The Mitrokhin Archive refers to a collection of handwritten notes about secret KGB operations spanning the period between the 1930s and 1980s made by KGB archivist Vasili Mitrokhin which he shared with the British intelligence in the early 1990s. Mitrokhin,who had worked at KGB headquarters in Moscow from 1956 to 1985,first offered his material to the US' Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in Latvia,but they rejected it as possible fakes. After that,he turned to the UK's MI6,which arranged his defection from Russia.
Alexander Valterovich Litvinenko was a British-naturalised Russian defector and former officer of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) who specialised in tackling organised crime. A prominent critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin,he advised British intelligence and coined the term "mafia state".
Anatoly Vasilyevich Trofimov was a head of the Soviet KGB investigation department. He personally supervised all Soviet dissident cases including Sergei Kovalyov,Gleb Yakunin,Alexey Smirnov,and Yuri Orlov. He was later a deputy director of the Russian Federal Security Service and became a mentor and supervisor of Alexander Litvinenko. He was assassinated in April 2005 by unidentified gunmen in Moscow.
Mario Scaramella is a lawyer and security consultant. He came to international prominence in 2006 in connection with the poisoning of the ex-Federal Security Service (FSB) agent Alexander Litvinenko. As responsible for intelligence analysis and production on KGB and military GRU espionage in Europe,he served as an investigator and adviser to the Mitrokhin Commission. Scaramella was a suspect by the Italian justice department for calumny.
Alexander Litvinenko was an officer of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) and its predecessor,the KGB,until he left the service and fled the country in late 2000.
NicolòPollari is a general of the Italian Guardia di Finanza,who was the former head of Italy's national military intelligence agency,or SISMI,from 1 October 2001 until his resignation on 20 November 2006.
Corrado Guzzanti is an Italian satirical actor,director,screenwriter,comedian and impersonator. He has become famous both for his impersonations of Italian personalities,and for playing his own characters inspired by contemporary society. He is the director of the film Fascisti su Marte. In 2010 he received the "Forte dei Marmi Political Satire Award". He has been described as a genius of satirical comedy,"the most interesting satirical author and actor today",and "among the comedians best loved by the Italian public".
Guido Salvini is an Italian judge,based in Milan. He issued European arrest warrants in 2005 against approximatively 20 CIA agents accused of having taken part in the abduction of Abu Omar,the Egyptian cleric in Milan in 2003. The case is known in Italy as the Abu Omar case. Before that,Guido Salvini was in charge of investigations,since July 1988,concerning Italy's strategy of tension during the 1970s.
The Mitrokhin Commission was an Italian parliamentary commission set up in 2002 to investigate alleged KGB ties of some Italian politicians. Set up by the Italian Parliament,then led by Silvio Berlusconi's centre-right coalition,the House of Freedoms,and presided by Paolo Guzzanti,its focus was on alleged KGB ties to opposition figures in Italian politics,basing itself on the Mitrokhin Archive,which was controversial and viewed with scepticism,and various other sources including the consultant Mario Scaramella. The Mitrokhin Commission alleged,among other things,that Romano Prodi,former centre-left Prime Minister of Italy and President of the European Commission from 1999 to 2004,was the "KGB's man in Italy".
On 13 May 1981,in St. Peter's Square in Vatican City,Pope John Paul II was shot and wounded by Mehmet Ali Ağca while he was entering the square. The Pope was struck twice and suffered severe blood loss. Ağca was apprehended immediately and later sentenced to life in prison by an Italian court. The Pope forgave Ağca for the assassination attempt. He was pardoned by Italian president Carlo Azeglio Ciampi at the Pope's request and was deported to Turkey in June 2000. Ağca converted to Roman Catholicism in 2007.
Massimo D'Alema is an Italian politician and journalist who was the 53rd prime minister of Italy from 1998 to 2000. He was Deputy Prime Minister of Italy and Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2006 to 2008. D'Alema also served for a time as national secretary of the Democratic Party of the Left (PDS). Earlier in his career,D'Alema was a member of the Italian Communist Party (PCI) and was the first former Communist party member to become prime minister of a NATO country and the only former PCI prime minister of Italy. Due to his first name and for his dominant position in the left-wing coalitions during the Second Republic,he is referred to as Leader Maximo. He is also the author of several books.
Giulio Santagata was an Italian politician who was a member of the Italian Chamber of Deputies and the leader of Together.
Us of the Centre,is a minor Christian-democratic political party in Italy based in Campania,where it is known also as Us Campanians. Led by Clemente Mastella,Minister of Labour in Berlusconi I Cabinet (1994–1995),minister of Justice in Prodi II Cabinet (2006–2008),and mayor of Benevento,the party is the successor of the Union of Democrats for Europe (UDEUR).
