The president of an Italian pro-Kremlin cultural association says he was in Moscow as a “member of the minister’s staff.” But he wasn’t on the ministerial list of delegates.

Twitter / @matteosalvinimi Gianluca Savoini seen in the foreground on the left-hand side of this picture tweeted by Matteo Salvini.

The head of an Italian pro-Kremlin organization with links to religious far-right movements in Russia participated in official meetings between senior Italian and Russian government ministers in Moscow this week.

A photo tweeted by Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini on Monday shows Gianluca Savoini, who is the president of the Lombardy-Russia Cultural Association, sitting in on a meeting between Salvini and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Kolokoltsev. It’s unclear in what capacity Savoini attended the meeting.

Questa mattina incontro bello e utile a Mosca con il ministro dell’Interno russo, Vladimir Kolokoltsev.

The issues discussed in Moscow — as US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin met in Helsinki — by the Italian and Russian officials included the sharing of information and best practice among security agencies, Salvini said in a series of tweets.

In one of several Facebook posts published by Savoini on Monday about the Moscow trip, he boasted about being name-checked by a journalist from Russia’s press agency TASS, who thanked Savoini for organizing a separate event with Salvini that took place during the trip. In another post Savoini wrote that Salvini also met with members of Russia’s national security council while in Moscow to talk about cybersecurity. He told Italian newspaper La Repubblica that he was present at that meeting, too.

facebook/lombardiarussia Savoini (left) with Italy's ambassador to Russia.

In a third post, Savoini is pictured with Italy’s ambassador to Moscow. “It was for me an enormous pleasure to accompany Minister Matteo Salvini during the course of his official visit to Moscow,” Savoini tweeted. Asked in what capacity he attended the meetings, Savoini told BuzzFeed News in an email that he was part of Salvini’s delegation as a “member of the minister’s staff.”

Savoini said that he’d been a member of Salvini’s Lega party since 1991, and had always been a part of Salvini’s staff even before the now–interior minister entered government. He also explained that he’d helped organise all of Salvini’s trips to Moscow, and had taken part in past meetings with President Vladimir Putin in 2014, as well as with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and other senior Russian officials. Savoini declined to expand on the precise nature of his role and duties in the minister’s staff, and whether these went beyond facilitating connections between Salvini and Moscow. “I don’t have an office at the ministry, but collaborate directly with Matteo Salvini on the basis of his requests. As we’ve known each other since forever,” he said. Two spokespeople for Italy’s interior minister told BuzzFeed News on Tuesday that Savoini wasn’t on the internal list of the ministry’s delegation for the Moscow trip, but was possibly an “external collaborator” with the minister. However, the ministry did not respond to repeated questions asking to clarify the exact relationship between the interior minister and Savoini, in what capacity Savoini attended the meetings in Moscow, and whether he had the necessary security clearance to participate in the discussions that took place. After Savoini’s presence in Moscow was highlighted on Twitter, a number of opposition Italian MPs submitted written questions to Salvini asking him to explain why the head of a cultural association was on the trip to Moscow.

Facebook/salviniofficial Matteo Salvini and Vladimir Putin, pictured in 2014.