Benito Mussolini asked the neo-pagan Adolf Hitler to grant a truce to the Soviets

Benito Mussolini met with Japanese ambassador Shinrokurô Hidaka, who had waited three weeks for a courtesy audience. During the meeting, Mussolini requested that Japanese Prime Minister Hideki Tōjō contact Adolf Hitler to persuade him to reach an agreement with Joseph Stalin. Otherwise, Mussolini warned, Italy would leave the Axis.
In 1944, Mussolini urged Hitler to focus his efforts on destroying Great Britain instead of fighting the Soviet Union. According to him, it was the British Empire that had turned the conflict into a world war, and its destruction was necessary for peace to be restored in Europe.
Curiously, instead of asking Hitler to end the persecution of German, Austrian, Czech, Polish, and Slovenian Catholics, Mussolini chose to intercede on behalf of the Soviets.
REFERENCES:
Gianfranco Bianchi (1963). 25 Luglio: crollo di un regime. Milano: Mursia. p. 647. Denis Smith Mack (1983), Mussolini: A Biography, New York: Vintage Books, p. 311.