League leader Matteo Salvini said Thursday that a report on possible Russian influence in the crisis of government that led to the collapse of outgoing Premier Mario Draghi’s executive last week was “fake news”.
Thursday’s edition of the daily newspaper La Stampa ran a report about possible contact having been made between Antonio Capuano, an advisor on international affairs to Salvini, and Oleg Kostyukov, a Russian embassy official. It reported that Moscow had asked about the possibility of the League withdrawing its ministers from Draghi’s government. “Let’s be serious,” Salvini said on the fringes of a conference of farmers’ association Coldiretti when asked about whether Russia had a hand in the crisis of government. “An official denial is on the way. It is extremely serious that fake news is being spread. We are with the West and with democracy.”
Cabinet Secretary Franco Gabrielli’s office said that it was not true that Italy’s intelligence services had reported on alleged contacts between Capuano and the Russian embassy. La Stampa defended its piece though, saying it was based on an informal summary of intelligence work on this issue. Draghi’s ruling coalition broke down last week when the League, Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia (FI) and the 5-Star Movement (M5S) failed to back a confidence vote, leading to the dissolution of parliament and snap elections on September 25th. In the past, Salvini has expressed his admiration for Russian President Vladimir Putin on several occasions. Salvini has, however, condemned Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
The centre-left Democratic Party (PD) and the centrist IV party called for an urgent explanatory report in parliament in the Lower House on Thursday. Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio called for clarification too. “These issues are very worrying,” Di Maio said. “I say to Salvini that he has to explain the relations with Russia”. Even the Brothers of Italy (FdI) party, a League ally, said it was in favor of clarification.
