In March 2006 , pending national elections , the controversial Mitrokhin Commission , set up by Silvio Berlusconi and headed by '' Forza Italia '' senator Paolo Guzzanti , supported once again the Bulgarian theory , which had been denounced by John Paul II during his travel to Bulgaria . Senator Guzzanti claimed that " leaders of the former Soviet Union were behind the assassination attempt " , alleging that " the leadership of the Soviet Union took the initiative to eliminate Pope John Paul " because of his support for Solidarity , relaying " this decision to the military secret services " ( and not the KGB ) . The report 's claims were based on recent computer analysis of photographs that purported to demonstrate Antonov 's presence in St Peter 's Square during the shooting and on information brought by the French anti-terrorist judge Jean-Louis Bruguière , a controversial figure whose last feat was to indict Rwandese president Paul Kagame , claiming he had deliberately provoked the 1994 Rwandan genocide against his own ethnic group in order to take power . According to '' Le Figaro '' , Bruguière , who is in close contacts as well with Moscow as with Washington , D.C. , including intelligence agents , has been accused by many of his colleagues of " privileging the reason of state over law . " Both Russia and Bulgaria condemned the report . " For Bulgaria , this case closed with the court decision in Rome in March 1986 " , Foreign Ministry spokesman Dimitar Tsanchev said , while also recalling the Pope 's comments during his May 2002 visit to Bulgaria . Senator Guzzanti said that the commission had decided to re-open the report 's chapter on the assassination attempt in 2005 , after the Pope wrote about it in his last book , '' Memory and Identity : Conversations Between Millenniums '' . The Pope wrote that he was convinced the shooting was not Ağca 's initiative and that " someone else masterminded it and someone else commissioned it " . The Mitrokhin Commission also claimed Romano Prodi , a former Prime Minister of Italy , was the " KGB 's man in Italy " . At the end of December 2006 , Mario Scaramella , one of the main informers of senator Guzzanti , was arrested and charged , among other things , of defamation . Rome 's prosecutor Pietro Salvitti , in charge of the investigations concerning Mario Scaramella , cited by '' La Repubblica '' , showed that Nicolò Pollari , head of SISMI , the Italian military intelligence agency and indicted in the '' Imam Rapito affair '' , as well as SISMI n ° 2 , Marco Mancini , arrested in July 2006 for the same reason , were some of the informers , alongside Mario Scaramella , of senator Paolo Guzzanti . Beside targeting Romano Prodi and his staff , this " network " , according to Pietro Salvitti 's words , also aimed at defaming General Giuseppe Cucchi ( current director of the CESIS ) , Milan 's judges Armando Spataro , in charge of the Imam Rapito case , and Guido Salvini , as well as '' La Repubblica '' reporters Carlo Bonini and Giuseppe D'Avanzo , who discovered the Yellowcake forgery affair . The investigation also showed a connection between Scaramella and the CIA , in particular through Filippo Marino , one of Scaramella 's closest partners since the 1990s and co-founder of the ECPP , who lives today in the US . Marino has acknowledged in an interview an association with former and active CIA officers , including Robert Lady , former CIA station chief in Milan , indicted by prosecutor Armando Spataro for having coordinated the abduction of Abu Omar , the '' Imam Rapito affair ''
Rwandan genocide
Rwandan genocide
Pope John Paul II assassination attempt