Italy: Right-wing parties deny financial injections from Russia

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Matteo Salvini and Giorgia Meloni

Photo: MIGUEL MEDINA / AFP

Reports of Russian party funding are once again creating tension in the Italian election campaign.

On Tuesday, a representative of the US government, citing intelligence information, told journalists that Moscow had paid at least $300 million to parties in around two dozen countries since 2014.

Among other things, the money went to right-wing parties in order to manipulate democracies from within.

In Italy, these references are putting pressure on the right-wing camp, which is leading in the polls, although neither addressees nor affected countries were named.

The heads of the two parties, Brothers of Italy and Lega, protested on Wednesday that they had not accepted any payments from the government in Moscow.

The head of the Italian brothers, Giorgia Meloni, who, according to polls, could become the future head of government, rejected the suspicion of ever having received money from Moscow.

She threatened a newspaper with a lawsuit because of the suspicions.

'You should present evidence.

Since they can't do that, I'm afraid a trial will be inevitable," she told Radio 24.

Meloni and Salvini deny everything

Lega boss Matteo Salvini made a similar statement: "I have never asked for or received money, rubles, euros, dinars or dollars from Russia," he assured the broadcaster RTL 102.5.

Despite years of investigation, nothing was ever found.

Salvini once described Putin as "the best living statesman".

In 2019, the recording of a conversation by one of his confidants was leaked, which involved a secret oil deal with the Russian government.

"Before (election day on) September 25, Italian voters have the right to know whether the parties listed on the ballot papers were funded by Putin," center-left PD leader Enrico Letta tweeted, referring to Russia President Vladimir Putin.

There are early elections in Italy because the coalition government under non-party Prime Minister Mario Draghi broke up in July.

PD leader Letta also sees the Russian government at work behind the government crisis.

According to him, so-called fake news controlled from Russia served the pro-Russian parties.

Draghi himself told parliament in July that Italy had to do more to combat "the interference of Russia and other autocracies in our politics."

as/Reuters