Italy expelled two Russian military attachés stationed at the embassy in Rome accused of running espionage operations against the country, Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani announced on Thursday.
This week, officials from Italy’s Carabinieni gendarmerie arrested two former Italian intelligence officers after an extensive investigation found that they were conducting espionage operations and leaking classified data to Moscow through officials stationed at the Russian embassy in Rome.
In a social media post, Foreign Minister Tajani identified Russian military attachés Ivan Petrovich Gorbachev and Mikhail Vasilyevich Astakhov as the two officials responsible overseeing the espionage operations against Italy. As such, the Italian Foreign Ministry informed Russian ambassador Alexei Paramonov that both attachés have 72 hours to leave the country, starting on Thursday.
“Moscow continues to use its hybrid weapons to attack the West and Italy. A serious and unacceptable interference for the Italian Institutions and for national security,” Tajani wrote.
The Italian Foreign Ministry confirmed the expelling of the two Russian officials through an official statement. The Ministry detailed that Russian Ambassador Paramonov was summoned on Thursday for a meeting with the Ministry’s Secretary General, Ambassador Riccardo Guariglia, who conveyed the Italian goverment’s “strongest protest” over the espionage activities committed by the two Russian officials.
“During the meeting, the Secretary General reiterated that such actions constitute a serious and unacceptable interference with national security and Italian institutions. It was further emphasized that Italy will continue to counter any hostile activity directed against the country with the utmost determination, in close coordination with its Allies,” the statement read in part.
According to Russian outlets, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova affirmed that Moscow will give an “adequate response” to the expelling of the two military attachés.
Rai News reports that Tajani, responding to Zakharova, emphasized, “The problem is that the two individuals expelled from Italy were engaged in espionage activities detrimental to national security.”
“And this has been proven. It was not a whim on Italy’s part. Russia can carry out whatever retaliatory measures it likes; these are acts of revenge. They need to prove that the people they expel are actually spies. Our decision is based on facts; theirs is political,” the Minister continued.
An extensive investigation by Italian authorities that branched into two separate sets of criminal proceedings led to this week’s arrest of Gavino Raoul Piras and Vincenzo di Pasquale, both former Italian intelligence officials. The men stand accused of engaging in unauthorized access of sensitive computer systems and leaking classified information to Moscow in exchange for money.
Italian outlets described 59 year-old Piras as an “ex-007,” due to the man’s intelligence and counter-intelligence background, which included training at the NATO school in Oberammergau, Germany. According to the investigations, Piras gathered the classified information requested by Russia through a network of sources with access to classified information.
Five other suspects are involved in the ongoing investigation — four of which are “active-duty military personnel assigned to highly classified posts” and the men who presumptively are responsible for leaking the classified information to the two arrested former agents.