MOSCOW, September 12. /TASS/. The Russian Foreign Ministry and the Russian embassy in Rome are awaiting a retraction from the Italian Corriere della Sera newspaper for publishing an article on alleged involvement of a Russian diplomat in financing the Italian Lega (League) political party, Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told a briefing on Thursday.
"The Russian embassy in Rome sent a rebuttal to the newspaper but it still has not been published," the diplomat said. "We are expecting the newspaper to publish the retraction based on the materials that the Russian embassy provided for the Italian newspaper and to apologize to the Russian diplomat." "We will keep an eye on this case," Zakharova concluded.
Corriere della Sera classified the first secretary of the Russian embassy in Italy as a person involved in the high-profile case of Russia’s alleged financing of the Lega party. The article published on Friday was met with outrage in the Russian diplomatic mission, which demanded an official retraction.