Here’s A Totally Crazy Story About Pro-Russian Mercenaries And A Close Aide To Italy’s De Facto Leader
www.buzzfeednews.com/article/albertonardelli/matteo-salvini-russia-gianluca-savoini
According to the court documents, Savoini, 54, [Gianluca Savoini, longtime aide to interior minister Matteo Salvini] has been in contact with a 25-year-old Italian man called Orazio Maria Gnerre, who is now under investigation as one of 10 people — nine men and one woman — accused by prosecutors.
The court papers also mention the pro-Kremlin cultural organization Savoini presides over, Lombardy-Russia, stating that one of its members participated in a gathering of nationalist political parties in St. Petersburg in March 2015, along with Gnerre and another individual under investigation as part of the same case.
Present at the meeting, which the court documents claim was organized by Russia’s nationalist Rodina party with the support of the Kremlin, were military commanders from separatist paramilitary units in eastern Ukraine, and what Italian prosecutors describe as “numerous European neo-Nazi, anti-Semitic, and homophobic militants.”
A criminal investigation involving Gnerre, originally started in the Italian region of Liguria five years ago, eventually led prosecutors in Genoa to gather evidence on the movement, activities, relationships, and motivation of more than a dozen people.
Members of that group now stand accused of a mix of charges, ranging from recruiting, training, and funding foreign mercenaries in eastern Ukraine, to fighting alongside pro-Russia and nationalist extremists in the region.