Thread by @AlbertoNardelli

Italian PM Conte will this afternoon report to parliament on the Lega-Russia scandal.

Here are some questions that he will hopefully address regarding his minister, Matteo Salvini:

1) What is minister Salvini's relationship with longtime trusted aide Gianluca Savoini? Why is a man who has no official role in government sitting in on official meetings with ministers in Moscow? Did Savoini cover his own travel costs and expenses on those trips?

2) What does Salvini know about the meeting that took place at the Metropol hotel on Oct. 18 2018? Was he aware of the meeting? Was he aware of the negotiation? Reminder: he dined with Savoini the night before.

3) What else did Salvini do on Oct. 17 in Moscow in the time between the conference he was speaking at that afternoon, and his flight back to Italy (on the 18th around midday)?

Here's some background to the scandal, and where things are at buzzfeednews.com/article/albert…

Listening to Italian PM Conte — on questions mentioned in this thread:

- says Savoini was on Salvini's official delegation to Moscow last July. Salvini has insisted he wasn't

- says Salvini had "private meetings" on 17th Oct.

Two further observations:

1) it’s extraordinary that the PM doesn’t seem to know what the interior minister does and the latter doesn’t answer the former’s questions

2) why is the interior minister seemingly heading Russia relations (instead of say the foreign ministry & PM)?

Finally, still no answer on the main question: did Salvini know about the Metropol meeting?