The next Italian election is in 2023. Why would an established right-wing populist government having business with Russia somehow be 'election meddling' also to what end? Russia doesn't really benefit much in trying to interfere and how much $ are they spending for presumably minimal gains. This claim that Russia is interfering in anything seems pretty weak. A

Furthermore, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Repubblica the source of this 'uncovered plot' is labelled as 'radical left' The source is extremely suspect at best.

Then you have this source and they are very left-wing as well and never do they explain the plot exactly.

There is no clear indication of whether this money ever actually made its way to Salvini and his party, L’Espresso notes.

https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/mother-jones/

Sorry but not only do they never make it clear what the 'major plot' is, but their bias makes the whole thing very suspect.