Eurofielen slaan alarm: 'Rusland probeert de Europese verkiezingen te beïnvloeden!'

Behind the small non-descript brown door of a mansion block in Moscow lie the headquarters of the company, Orion LLC.

This mysterious entity, which has an eclectic range of specialisms - from business consulting to heavy industrial machinery sale, construction projects, engineering design and market research - is owned by two key figures in the Italian political party, the League: Gianluca Savoini, president of the Lombardy-Russia Cultural Association, and Claudio d'Amico, a senior foreign policy adviser to the party...

[L]ast year, Salvini tweeted his support for Putin in the Russian presidential elections, alongside an article denying claims of Russian involvement in the poisoning of Sergei Skripal, a former Russian spy, in the UK last year. Key to a lot of this activity is the Lombardia-Russia Cultural Association, which Savoini runs and in which d'Amico plays a pivotal role. Set up soon after Salvini took over the League, it aims to build a unity of mission between the two countries based on the core pillars of "identity, sovereignty and tradition".

How can we be sure those holding public office are not acting in the interests of their business dealings if we simply do not know what these are? A series of weak systems across the continent leaves European democracy ripe for exploitation. And if we cannot act to protect that, we're facing a very dangerous future.