Mr. Renzi is making the issue central to his own Facebook posts and a conference he will kick off in Florence on Friday evening to call attention to the issue. Mr. Stroppa has also prepared a report for Mr. Renzi that attempts to demonstrate a connection between seemingly unrelated sites promoting rival anti-establishment political movements critical of Mr. Renzi and the center-left government. The League and the Five Star Movement are not nominally allied, and even cast themselves as rivals. Mr. Salvini’s party signed a cooperation agreement in March 2017 with Mr. Putin’s United Russia Party, and Mr. Salvini, who uses xenophobic and anti-Muslim language, has repeatedly praised Mr. Putin as an ally against Islamic terrorism. The Five Star Movement has hosted on its associated websites anti-Renzi propaganda originating on Russian outlets such as Sputnik or RT.

Source: New York Times November 24, 2017 18:43 UTC