Uncertainty, controversy surround Salvini trip to Moscow

(ANSA) - ROME, MAY 30 - Uncertainty and controversy continued on Monday after League leader Matteo Salvini's said he might take a trip to Moscow in an attempt to make a breakthrough that could lead to an end to the war in Ukraine.
    Salvini has come under heavy fire over the mooted peace mission, including from other parts of the centre-right alliance the League belongs to.
    On Monday Forza Italia MP Elio Vito, a member of the Copasir parliamentary committee that oversees Italy's intelligence services, said he had filed a question in parliament to Premier Mario Draghi and Foreign Minster Luigi Di Maio over reports that the plan was recommended by a lawyer who has done work for the Russian embassy.
    "Contacts and negotiations with foreign embassies... can compromise our country's diplomatic and institutional relations and, therefore, also our national security," Vito said.
    On Sunday the new head of Italian bishops conference CEI, Matteo Zuppi, seemed to indirectly criticise the mooted visit, saying there was a risk of doing things "just to show that one is doing something".
    Salvini expressed admiration for Russian President Vladimir Putin on several occasions before the war in Ukraine.
    The League leader has condemned Moscow's invasion of its neighbour.
    He has also said he is not in favour of Italy sending any more weapons to Kyiv on top of the ones it has already supplied.
    (ANSA).