New Country Threatened by Major Russian Meddling Scandal

ROME—The populist front runners in Italy’s upcoming general election have threatened to sue anyone who says they received some of the $300 million the U.S. claims Russia has been peddling to influence global elections.

Matteo Salvini of Italy’s Lega party, which is polling strong ahead of the Sept. 25 vote—along with Giorgia Meloni’s far-right Brothers of Italy and former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia—said Tuesday that his lawyers were ready to file a defamation charge if his name is mentioned tied to the U.S. claim.

Inside Matteo Salvini's Secret Russian Money Machine

On Tuesday, the U.S. State Department released a statement about an intelligence review that says Russia has likely given far more than the known $300 million in donations. “The Kremlin and its proxies have transferred these funds in an effort to shape foreign political environments in Moscow’s favor,” the document said. “The United States will use official liaison channels with targeted countries to share still-classified information about Russian activities targeting their political environments,” State Department spokesman Ned Price said. “In order to fight this, in many ways we have to put a spotlight on it.”

That spotlight is focused on several European countries with close ties to Russia that are said to have been involved. Italy’s leading politicians—Salvini, who famously posed wearing a Putin T-Shirt in Red Square, and Silvio Berlusconi, who has had a longtime friendship with Vladimir Putin—are chief among those attracting attention.

“Some of Russia’s covert political financing methods are especially prevalent in certain parts of the world,” the document claims. “Russia has relied on state-owned enterprises and large firms to move funds covertly across a number of regions, including Central America, Asia, the Middle East and North Africa, and on think tanks and foundations that are especially active across Europe.”

The documents were declassified by the Biden administration as a way to attempt to ward off further election meddling, Price said. Italy’s election is the next big vote and could drastically affect the war in Ukraine as both Salvini and Berlusconi have called into question whether they would support continuing sanctions against Russia over the war. A change in tack by European leaders could pave the way to diminished support for Ukraine, which could drastically affect its ability to continue to fight Russian aggression.

The head of Italy’s Parliamentary National Security group, known as Copasir, said he had alerted Italian secret services to investigate. “I have discussed the report with the authority delegated to the security of the Republic Franco Gabrielli,” Adolfro Urso said Wednesday. “We await more detailed information.”

The group will surely be looking at the 2019 Metropol scandal, when Salvini spokesman Gianluca Savoini was accused of negotiating a loan from Moscow through a shell company tied to diesel fuel to be funneled through the state gas company Eni while Salvini was interior minister. Several of Salvini’s cohorts in the Lega party have strong business ties in Russia, which have suffered great economic losses due to sanctions.

The Metropol scandal—dubbed after the Moscow hotel in which Savoini was caught on camera meeting Putin henchmen—is thought to have been the primary reason Salvini pulled the plug on his support for the ruling government in 2019 as a way to divert attention away from the growing controversy over his ties to Putin. Savoini and his Russian wife own several properties in Russia, and he leads the Russia-Lombardy think tank rumored to be part of the U.S. State Department claims.

Salvini said Wednesday that he has “given a mandate” to his lawyers to “sue anyone who improperly cites the party and Matteo Salvini” tied to the American claims. “Falsehoods and insinuations will no longer be tolerated,” Salvini’s spokesman said. Salvini himself told RTL that he has never taken money from Russia. “I never took rubles, euros or anything else,” he said. “I only brought one thing in Russia: Masha and the Bear for my daughter.”

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