Draghi Says US Confirmed No Italian Parties In Report On Alleged Russian Financing

Draghi Says US Confirmed No Italian Parties in Report on Alleged Russian Financing

Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi said on Friday that US Secretary of State Antony Blinken confirmed during their phone conversation that Italian political parties were not mentioned in a report about Russia's alleged financing of foreign political powers

ROME (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 16th September, 2022) Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi said on Friday that US Secretary of State Antony Blinken confirmed during their phone conversation that Italian political parties were not mentioned in a report about Russia's alleged financing of foreign political powers.

The Biden administration claimed that Russia allegedly spent more than $300 million since 2014 to meddle in politics in over 20 countries after the US Foreign Ministry declassified information from a State Department cable that was sent to US embassies around the world, the Associated Press reported on Tuesday. Next day, Italian parliamentary committee Copasir said Italian officials were not in the report.

"US State Secretary confirmed the absence of Italian political powers in a list of those (who) received Russian financing, which has become a topic in the media in recent days," Draghi said during a press conference.

The prime minister also noted that Blinken assured him US would look through its other documents to see if there were signs of such financing.

Deputy Secretary of the Council of Ministers Franco Gabrielli, who is responsible for state security issues of the republic, said that the Italian intelligence also received information from their American colleagues confirming that Italian political parties were not mentioned in the report.

The issue has become one of the main topics on the agenda of the parliamentary election campaign ahead of the vote on September 25. Leading Italian political forces started to accuse each other of getting Russian funding, threaten opponents with lawsuits for libel and call for the publication of the report's full contents.