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Italy's Salvini Shrugs Off 'Russia Allegations,' Doubles Down on Immigration

Jamie Dettmer

   ROME - Italy's deputy prime minister, Matteo Salvini, is shrugging off
   allegations that his populist party sought secret Russian funding and
   is doubling down on his defense of "Christian culture" and the issue
   that has rewarded him the most in the voting booths -- immigration.

   While prosecutors in Milan probe claims that the far-right Lega party
   solicited covert Russian funding, the Italian deputy prime minister has
   been stepping up the tempo and fervor of his anti-migrant broadsides in
   rallies and on his social media sites, linking migration to crime and
   to joblessness and warning of threats to Italy's traditional culture.

   Salvini critics say he's purposely trying to distract attention away
   from the Russia allegations and away from the country's ailing economy,
   which is stubbornly mired in recession.

   The persistent allegations of secret Russian funding took on new
   impetus last week when the online news site Buzzfeed posted audio tapes
   of a meeting in a Moscow hotel between Salvini's former press
   spokesman, Gianluca Savoini, and unidentified Russians discussing the
   possibility of diverting $65 million to the Lega by means of discounted
   Russian oil transactions.

   Milanese prosecutors have sought to question Savoini, who attended a
   July 4 state dinner in Rome for Russian President Vladimir Putin at
   Salvini's request, but the former journalist has exercised his right to
   not to respond to questions, according to the Italian news agency Ansa.

   Salvini is taking a similar tack with the media. He poured scorn on the
   allegations in a statement last week, saying he's never taken "a ruble,
   a euro, a dollar or a liter of vodka." And he says his admiration for
   Russian President Vladimir Putin comes "free" -- so, too, his
   opposition to European sanctions imposed on Russia for the 2014
   annexation of Crimea from Ukraine.

   But on Monday he told reporters, "I don't intend to speak anymore about
   money that I never saw and that I never asked for."

   And so far he has resisted a mounting clamor to appear before the
   country's parliament to answer questions about the alleged meeting
   involving Savoini, the president of an Italian-Russian business
   association and one of the Lega's main contacts with the Kremlin.

   Instead Salvini has upped his anti-migrant rhetoric in the face of
   opposition criticism that he is stoking racial hatred. And it appears
   to be paying off in the opinion polls. His Lega party has enjoyed a
   relentless rise in support at the cost of its partner in Italy's uneasy
   coalition government, the anti-establishment Five Star Movement.

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