The meeting attended by Dutch eurosceptic politician Geert Wilders and other like-minded party leaders in Italy last weekend was also attended by an MP from United Russia, the party of Russian president Vladimir Putin, the NRC reports.

Wilders was one of a number of Eurosceptic party leaders who attended the Northern League conference in Turin and used the fringes to discuss plans to form a common front to fight the European elections next May, the NRC said.

Other visitors included Vlaams Belang chairman Gerolf Annemans, Front National politican Ludovic De Danne and FPÖ chairman Heinz-Christian Strache.

According to Italian media, Viktor Zubarev also addressed the gathering and spoke about ‘values, the family, the nation, a return to religion’ and said that the party shared a lot of ideas with Italy’s Northern League, from immigration to budgetary policies.

A photograph on Ludovic De Danne’s Facebook page also shows Zubarev sharing a platform with Wilders and the others.