Russian funds, Copasir: “For now, Italy does not appear in US 007 report”

 “Tonight – here it was full night – I dutifully confronted with the delegated authority, Undersecretary Franco Gabrielli, because obviously it is the government that eventually has to have news about this through official channels, which also concern relations of collaboration and government and between our intelligence agencies, and I can say that at the moment there is no news that concerns Italy. So we have been told, there should be no news in these files that concern our country.” This was said by Copasir President Adolfo Urso, speaking from Washington to ‘Agora,’ on Rai3, regarding the U.S. document that Russia has spent more than $300 million since 2014 attempting to influence politicians and other officials from more than a score of countries.

“Moreover, today I am in Washington and will have more meetings. Yesterday I met among others with five influential senators from the main committees — intelligence, defense, foreign, budget committees — with whom of course we talked extensively about our bilateral relations. And today I will have more meetings, among others just with the chairman of the intelligence committee of the U.S. Senate, and my interlocutors of course I will ask, if they might be able to give us news about it,” Urso continued. “I can say, with the discussion I had with the delegated authority, which rightly activated the official channels to get news, that at the moment we have been excluded that this concerns our country,” the Copasir chairman reiterated. Then he added, “I have agreed with Undersecretary Gabrielli to carry out a meeting of the Committee anyway, I think it will be put on the calendar for Friday,” “the committee as it should be will meet with the hearing of Undersecretary Gabrielli and there we will verify if we already have other news.”

“What I can say to assuage I hope the overly incandescent climate of this election campaign, in which one looks forward to nothing more than attacking, denigrating, delegitimizing, sometimes even criminalizing the opponent, this is the worst way to campaign when we all know that Russia and also China are obviously trying to delegitimize in the various possible ways our democracies and we should counter them in the opposite direction by not playing their game,” Urso said. And again, “Foreign interference exists: authoritarian and totalitarian societies and systems, Russia and China in the lead and not only them try to strike, delegitimize, condition and subjugate our democracies and we should know that. That is also why I hope that the election campaign will be peaceful, constructive.”

Copasir meeting convened for Friday 16

Copasir will meet on Friday to look into the matter of Russian funding to foreign political parties and politicians with the Delegated Authority for Intelligence Franco Gabrielli. This was reported by Committee Chairman Adolfo Urso on the sidelines of a press meeting in Washington. “At the moment,” Urso said, there is no news concerning Italy, but “between now and Friday things can change,” he added.

Salvini: “Money from Russia? Every time fake news 10 days before the vote.”

U.S. 007 report on Russian meddling? “Never asked and never took rubles, dollars or dinars from Russia, the only thing I brought from Moscow was Masha and Bear. Strange that every time 10 days before the vote comes this fake news. Different kettle of fish is to cheer for peace and not because I am being paid to do so. If someone took money, say so. Russia may have even paid three-quarters of the Italian parties, what do I know. If you make a complaint you say who, what and how. It seems to me that someone on the left is using it not to talk about Italians and bills. They are the priority, not Russia and Finland.” League leader Matteo Salvini said this at the microphones of Rtl 102.5.

Meloni: “League financed by Moscow? It will not emerge.”

FdI leader Giorgia Meloni, a guest on ‘Radio24,’ spoke about possible funding from Moscow to the League and said that “it will not be necessary” to distance herself from Matteo Salvini’s party because she says she is “certain” that no evidence of Kremlin funding to the Carroccio will emerge. “I think it won’t happen. It’s been talked about for months, but nothing has emerged,” Meloni said.

Russian Embassy in Rome: “US tries to manipulate vote”

The Russian Embassy in Rome, in a Facebook post, denounces, “This is an attempt by the United States to manipulate the vote.”