Buzzfeed with the breaking news
The report comes as Buzzfeed says that they have obtained an audio recording of a meeting on 18 October 2018 in Moscow's iconic Metropol Hotel, involving three Russians and three Italians (including Gianluca Savoini, a long-time aide of Matteo Salvini), discussing terms of a possible deal to secretly funnel around $65 million of Russian oil money to Salvini's Lega party and its European election campaign.
The Russians on the tape - unable to be identified - enthusiastically described Salvini as the "European Trump" and provides some form of evidence of Russia's attempts to fund nationalist movements in Europe.
It is unclear if Lega ever did receive any funding and they will no doubt deny it to the bitter end but this certainly is something worth keeping track of in the background as it may just distance the Italian government further from most of its peers.
The full transcript can be found here if you're interested.
