A Milan judge on Thursday upheld a
request from prosecutors to shelve an investigation into alleged
negotiations for Russian funding for Italy's League party.
The case centred on a meeting at Moscow's Metropol hotel in
October 2018 which the three Italians and three Russian
intermediaries allegedly discussed siphoning off 65 million
euros from the profits of an oil sale transaction.
So the probe into international corruption regarding Gianluca
Savoini, the former spokesman of League leader and Transport and
Infrastructure Minister Matteo Salvini, and the head of the
Lombardy-Russia association, lawyer Gianluca Meranda, and former
banker Francesco Vannucci has been dropped.
"Investigation into alleged Russian funds of the Metropol case
shelved," Salvini, who is also deputy premier, said via Twitter.
"We now expect apologies and we are preparing law suits for many
people"
The Milan preliminary investigations judge who shelved the case
wrote in the decision that, while ultimately no crime could be
proven, the unfulfilled aim of the negotiations was to get cash
directed towards the party.
The judge wrote that the investigation uncovered acts staged
"unequivocally" with the "final aim of illegally financing the
League party" thanks to Savoini's relations with influential
Russian political, economic and cultural figures.
It said the aim was unfulfilled, in part because the main
oil-sale transaction did not take place.
The judge also said it was impossible to identify the Russian
officials who would have been involved in the alleged
corruption.
Photo: Gianluca Savoini.
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