Conte to report on League-Russia case

(ANSA) - Rome, July 17 - Premier Giuseppe Conte has said he is willing to report to the Senate on July 24 over suspicions a person close to the League party discussed taking funding via oil kickbacks from Russia, the opposition, centre-left Democratic Party (PD) said Wednesday.
    Conte himself said "parliament is sacred and I must report to it".
    He said "I am the top government authority" and so it was his duty to report on the case. PD Senate whip Andrea Marcucci said Conte had agreed to a request from the party for him to report to parliament over this issue.
    Deputy Premier, Interior Minister and League leader Matteo Salvini has refused to report to parliament specifically about this case, but has said he is willing to talk about it during his regular question-time session. Salvini said his party has not taken a rouble off the Russians and described the case as "ridiculous". Milan prosecutors opened a probe after reports that Lombardy-Russia Association President Paolo Savoini met with two other Italians and three Russians in a Moscow hotel to discuss siphoning off an alleged 65 million euros from oil profits. The minister has denied inviting Savoini to take part in two bilateral meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin recently.
    The PD and the League, meanwhile, clashed in a Lower House committee on Wednesday after the former used obstructionist tactics during the examination of Salvini's new decree with measures aimed at boosting security. The PD want Salvini to report to parliament specifically on the Russia case and the obstructionism is continuing.
    Italian police on Wednesday placed under investigation the two other Italians who said they attended the alleged talks with Savoini, lawyers Gianluca Meranda and Francesco Vannucci, and searched their homes.