There is a recurring name in the pages that add to the Italian “Russiagate”. According to the Espresso and Buzzfeed investigations, now leading to an investigation by the Milan prosecutor’s office headed by Gianluca Savoini , a long-time collaborator of Matteo Salvini and president of the Lombardy Russia association, one of the most frequent interlocutors of the Salvinian League in Moscow in the months preceding the negotiation that took place last October at the Hotel Metropol would be Konstantin Malofeev . Forty-five years old, with a full beard and glassy eyes, the Russian oligarch amassed an estimated $ 2 billion in assets in the early 2000s through his Marshall Capital group, which manages investment funds for the purchase and restructuring of Western companies.THE (INTERRUPTED) METROPOL TRACK
Malofeev’s direct involvement in the October interlocutions is still to be tried. The information available draws a chiaroscuro picture. The documents of L’Espresso show that in July 2018 Savoini was in contact with an oil company, Avangard Oil & Gas, which is based in the same building that houses the registered offices of the main companies of the oligarch, in via Novinsky Boulevard 31 : Marshall Capital and Tsagrad Tv. Here, for now, the common thread that binds the negotiations in the lobby of the luxurious hotel to the Russian patron stops. “The track leading from Savoini to Malofeev’s offices will slow down” writes Giovanni Tizian. LOVES (NOT) REPLACEDMalofeev remains a privileged interlocutor of the League in Russia, albeit indirectly. In the circle of contacts that go back and forth between Via Bellerio and the Kremlin, his name always appears, with Swiss punctuality . The media narrative has somewhat hastily labeled him as a “very neighbor” of President Putin. He has always been an admirer of the “Tsar” Malofeev. He considers it the “Katechon”, the emperor designated by history to transform Moscow into a “new Rome”. Yet, explains Gianluca Paolucci in La Stampa , it is by no means said that the young and enterprising oligarch today has the blessing of the Kremlin. On the contrary. WHO IS KOSTANTIN MALOFEEV
Much has been written about him in recent months. In the public domain is his popularity in conservative Catholic and Orthodox circles in Russia and Europe. A real guru, who through the consortium “Tsagrad Group of Companies” replenishes the coffers of dozens of Russian charitable organizations devoted to the promotion of Christian values, including the mammoth charity Saint Basil the Great. Foundations and charities aren’t the only thing Malofeev funds. For five years, individual EU and US State Department sanctions have been hanging on his head, accused of having given resources and funds to the separatists in the Donbas. Restrictive measures that prevented him from traveling to the Old Continent, but certainly not interested in them. THE EUROPEAN NETWORK
In 2015, Mediapart revealed its direct involvement in facilitating a € 9 million loan to Marine Le Pen ‘s Front National through the First Czech Russian Bank and another two million through a Cypriot company, Vernosia Holdings. His name appears everywhere in the Savoini case. With Salvini, entrepreneur Bruno Giancotti , for years facilitator of relations between Via Bellerio and Moscow, told La Stampa , Malofeev had only sporadic meetings, surrounded by a certain reserve. The Northern League leader knows of the sanctions that are incumbent on the oligarch, and has always preferred to avoid photo opportunities. On the other hand, as Michael Carpenter explained to the Turin newspaper, director for Russia at the National Security Council with Barack Obama in the White House, “having relations with Malofeev for the US is like being friends with Assad in Syria or with Maduro” . THE LINK WITH THE SALVINIAN LEAGUE
The Russian oligarch, on the other hand, has relations with other poppies in the Northern League. With Savoini there is a bond of friendship born years ago in the studios of Tsagrad Tv, the “Fox” in Russian sauce founded by the oligarch to give voice to the ultra-conservative world, with some success. The same goes for Claudio d’Amico, 54, former Northern League parliamentarian, advisor “for strategic activities of international importance” to Deputy Prime Minister Salvini, present two years ago when in Moscow, in March 2017, a direct collaboration agreement was signed between the League and Putin Russia’s party Unit.
Here we come to Malofeev’s third contact with the universe surrounding via Bellerio. Alexey Komov , considered the oligarch’s right-hand man (he firmly denies), honorary president of the Lombardy Russia association and Russian ambassador to the World Congress of Families, already in December 2013 was wandering around as a speaker at the congress at the Lingotto in Turin which crowned Salvini secretary of the then Northern League. THE CULTURAL BACKGROUND
To unite the Northern League world to the Russian tycoon there are more than a few intermediaries. In fact, there is a recurring cultural substrate in the “Russian” narrative of the League. The defense of Christian values from Western decadence, the severe criticism of the libertarian doctrine on civil rights. And then the idea of a Russia called, under Putin’s leadership, to take charge of the European cultural and religious heritage and to return as a protagonist on the international scene. Of these battles Alexandr Dugin, philosopher and essayist, ideologue of the new “Eurasia”, and still today the greatest prophet. The Russian thinker is closely linked to the League and Malofeev. He is honorary president of the Piedmont-Russia association (twin of the one chaired by Savoini and Komov) and an undisputed point of reference for our own sovereignists, lately also very present in Rai. Dugin is also a regular guest of Tsagrad Tv and of the Katehon website, a think tank founded and financed by Malofeev. MOSCOW SKEPTICISM
That Malofeev is a personality of great influence in Russia and beyond doubt. He is one of the richest men in the country, and his popularity in the ultra-conservative Catholic and Orthodox world is growing sharply.On the other hand, it should not be taken for granted that the Russian network of the League, of which, as we have seen, the oligarch is a significant pivot, has the blessing of Putin and his closest collaborators in the Kremlin. The role played by Malofeev in the Donbas, writes Paolucci in La Stampa, did not put him in good light with the Russian government, which today accuses the impact of Western sanctions linked to those operations. It is no coincidence that the Russian government media have paid very little attention to the events of the “Russian circle” of the League at the Metropol hotel, refusing to engage in an official defense of the Northern League. “After dozens of stories about Russian interference in America and in European domestic politics, people in Russia are exhausted – Ivan Kurilla explains to Formiche.net, professor of Russian-American relations at the European University of St. Petersburg – some here consider it another example of paranoia, others are convinced that Russia has interfered everywhere, so where would the news be
“.
(Photo: Financial Times)
