Salvini’s big weekend: Far-right Italian politician shrugs off claims over Moscow trip

A cancelled trip to Moscow by far-right leader Matteo Salvini has become the latest scandal rocking Italian politics.

Salvini stands accused of accepting Russian money to fund the planned trip to Moscow. His “peace mission” to the Russian capital was scheduled for 29 May but was cancelled following widespread criticism from political opponents and even allies.

In a statement at the weekend, the League leader warned “media and politicians” that his lawyers had been instructed to take legal action against anyone suggesting the planned visit had been financed by Russia.

"The League doesn’t have and never has had financial agreements with Moscow," the statement read. “No free Kremlin tickets and no ‘travel paid by Moscow’ – whoever continues to argue the contrary will be held accountable.”

The pushback followed an earlier statement by the Russian embassy, claiming to have assisted Salvini and his entourage “in purchasing airline tickets for his trip to Moscow” due to European sanctions on Russian airline Aeroflot.

“It is difficult to purchase tickets for [Aeroflot] flights from the European Union. The embassy assisted Salvini and the people accompanying him in purchasing the airline tickets they needed in rubles through a Russian travel agency,” the embassy said.

The flight tickets to Moscow, the embassy clarified, were eventually refunded by the League. But this wasn’t enough to quash the criticism that spread like wildfire among Salvini’s opponents.

The Democratic Party demanded clarifications, while Italia Viva leader Matteo Renzi bemoaned the fact that Salvini had purchased a return flight rather than a one-way, and member of the European Parliament Carlo Calenda called him a “danger to national security”.

This is just the latest in a string of Salvini blunders that have surfaced since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February.

In March, the far-right leader’s secretive dinner at the Russian embassy in Rome sparked widespread criticism. Around the same time Salvini’s visit to Poland made headlines when the mayor of the border town of Przemyśl publicly shamed the Italian politician for his long-running admiration of President Vladimir Putin.

"We are asking for answers, this affair cannot end like this,” Enrico Letta of the Democratic Party said. “While the [Ukraine] crisis was underway, there were negotiations between the Russian invader and an Italian government party.”

The League’s tricky weekend was exacerbated by the party’s failure to garner any significant number of votes at the country’s local elections on Sunday. Results on Monday showed that the League had been overshadowed by coalition partner Brothers of Italy, led by far-right Giorgia Meloni.

"The League’s effort to be the glue which keeps the centre-right together, even when sacrificing itself, is the winning path,” Salvini said on Monday. His statement was promptly followed by Meloni: “Brothers of Italy is growing significantly. We are the driving force of the centre-right.”

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Voting kicked off at 7am on Sunday to elect mayors and councilors in almost 1,000 towns and cities, including in four regional capitals, Palermo in Sicily, Catanzaro in Calabria, Genova in Liguria, and L’Aquila in Abruzzo.

Overall right-wing parties like Meloni’s Brothers of Italy did well, while the once popular Five Star Movement seems to have lost much of its appeal – a result that could be repeated at the next parliamentary election, expected for next spring.

"The League thanks the millions of Italians who voted or will vote despite there being only one day of polls, the silence of too many media outlets and politicians, the summer weekend and the shameful chaos seen for example in Palermo," The League said in a statement issued to the media on Sunday.