Russian Attempted Funding of the Italian Trumpist League Party

An Italian court last week shelved a criminal case against members of the far-right anti-migrant League Party for an attempt in 2018 to obtain illegal foreign funding for their party from Russians in the form of millions of dollars’ worth of fuel, which was revealed in a videotape of a clandestine meting of League officials and Russians. The League leader, who is a supporter of Donald Trump, was similarly sympathetic to Russian Federation tyrant Vladimir Putin, an ex-Soviet intelligence officer, and whose party is part of the current ruling coalition, falsely claims vindication of his denials and demands an apology, but the judge noted that prosecutors had definitely proven the League officials had sought illegal foreign campaign contributions, but were unable to bring forward a prosecution only because they could not identify the Russians involved in the attempt. The League leader, who is currently Transportation Minister and at the time of the attempt was also in government, blocked even an inquiry into the matter, using the excuse that the attempt was not successful. Last year, the League leader and other officials accepted flights paid for by the Russian dictatorship to discuss Russian “peace” initiatives after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Although the League does not support Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, it has been skeptical of continued Italian military support for Ukraine, in contrast to the other right-wing parties in the governing coalition and the Prime Minister. Russia interferes in foreign elections in many ways, both openly and covertly, including through financing far-left or far-right parties and organizations sympathetic to it, as has happened in France, the United States and Austria, for example.