• Conte: "No government office for Savoini, he was in Moscow with Salvini"
  • Investigation of Russian funds, Savoini makes use of the right not to reply
  • Palazzo Chigi: Savoini invited to Villa Madama by Salvini's councilor
  • The prosecutor rogatory in Russia about money flows. Salvini: "Savoini, I didn't invite him"
  • Salvini: "Savoini, I didn't invite him". Kremlin spokesman: "Investigation proves nothing"
  • Savoini replies after audio BuzzFeed: "It's a trap against Salvini"

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03 September 2019The hearing will be held on Thursday 5 September in front of the Court of Milan Review to discuss the seizure of computers and telephones requested by the defenders of Gianluca Savoini, former spokesman of the vice premier Matteo Salvini, of the lawyer Gianluca Meranda and of Francesco Vannucci investigated for international corruption in the investigation into alleged Russian funds to the League. The defenders are studying the documents deposited by the prosecutor's office, including the audio and transcription of the file recorded during the meeting at the Metropol hotel on October 18, 2018 at the center of the Milan investigation, the ways in which the audio file was acquired and the attorney's advice that would certify that it is an original registration.

The queen test
The defendants' defenses aim precisely to 'dismantle' what would appear to be the queen's trial in the prosecution's hands. One of the cards that the defenses could use is to discredit the person sitting at the Metropol table in Moscow who recorded and provided the audio, a source that the Espresso journalist Stefano Vergine has always kept confidential by making use of professional secrecy. The 'unknown' source could, according to the defenders, make the audio unusable in the event of a trial. The Review is the first real comparison between accusations and defenders, while the investigation goes ahead and the documents in the hands of the prosecution seem to increase. The prosecutors, Sergio Spataro and Gaetano Ruta, coordinated by the adjunct Fabio De Pasquale, are still analyzing the papers seized during the recent searches to the suspects.

Buzzfeed reveals the names of the Russians
Andrey Yuryevich Kharchenko and Ilya Andreevich Yakunin: these would be the names of the two Russians present at the Metropol meeting last October 18 with the League's emissaries, Gianluca Savoini, Gianluca Meranda and Francesco Vannucci, for an oil trade that would have yielded 65 million euros. This was revealed by the American site BuzzFeed, which in July had also broadcast the audio of the meeting. The names of the two Russians had not yet emerged from the investigation of the Milan prosecutor's pool following the case.

Ties to power
According to the American site, the two Russians have a bond with two important Russian politicians, Aleksandr Dugin and Vladimir Pligin, who "are part of the small circle" of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Dugin - says BuzzFeed again - is "the father of an ideology that Putin has embraced in recent years, and that sees an emerging Russia, with the role of bulwark against the liberal west". Pligin, however, American investigative journalists continue, played a leading role in Russian foreign policy, and helped write a law being debated in the country's parliament that certified the annexation of Crimea in 2014. Neither Dugin nor Pligin were present at the Metropol summit, but both were mentioned in the speech between the emissaries of the Russian government and those of the Italian party.

Green light
A rumor also states that Pligin's own "green light" would be needed to continue negotiations on the 65 million euros that the League should have pocketed, acting as a vehicle for a fuel sale between Italy and Russia. Hypothesis on which the Milan prosecutor moves, which started the investigation the day after the investigation of Espresso, which came out last February. Dugin, however, had been photographed with Savoini a few days before the summit by an Italian journalist. According to the American website the voices of the audio - also acquired by the prosecutors who investigate the case after having summoned the Italian journalists in charge of the investigation to the prosecutor's office - would unequivocally lead to the two characters, as confirmed by the analysis made by the National Center for Media University of Colorado Forensics. A type of comparative analysis on the file similar to that for which a Milanese prosecution was proceeding.