Italian officials are looking into whether outside actors such as Russia had a hand in violent protests that swept Milan and other European cities over the weekend, according to people familiar with the matter.

Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni government has asked to be briefed on what role, if any, foreign provocateurs may have played, the people said, asking not to be cited as the conversations are private. A spokesperson for Meloni declined to comment.

Protests in Paris, Milan and other European cities over the cost of living turned violent over the weekend leading to looting and arson. The level of violence and apparent coordination of some of the attacks prompted officials to ask whether it might be more than just a spontaneous expression of anger.

“The events in Milan and elsewhere in Italy are fundamentally different from those seen in other periods,” Defense Minister Guido Crosetto said at an event in Rome on Tuesday. “They are the product of what I call ‘hybrid warfare,’ which someone is bringing into our countries with unconventional tools that are called TikTok, social media and YouTube, without the West realizing or reacting.”Crosetto said children as young as 11 or 12 who were involved in the protests seemed to have been subjected to a form of “counter-education.”He didn’t give any more specifics.

Meloni’s government, meanwhile, announced measures aimed at stemming further violence amid concern over another round of demonstrations scheduled for the coming weekend. In Milan, where the protests were particularly violent the government plans to deploy 500 military personnel until the end of the year.

Critics of Meloni’s conservative coalition accused the government of using the unrest for political advantage ahead of next year’s general election while failing to address underlying economic and social problems.