Espionage for Moscow: Two Italians in custody, five under investigation
Italian law enforcement has detained two people suspected of handing over classified data to a Russian intelligence service operative. The investigation involves five other individuals.
Espionage for Moscow: Two Italians in custody, five under investigation
Italian law enforcement has detained two people suspected of handing over classified data to a Russian intelligence service operative. The investigation, which began in 2024 according to Reuters via News.ro, involves five other individuals in addition to the two arrested.
The detainees are suspected of receiving financial compensation from the foreign operative in exchange for classified material. The sums are believed to have been transferred from accounts located in Russia through a chain of intermediaries. The data transmitted is said to have concerned sensitive aspects of national security.
The charges against the two Italians also include unlawful intrusion into computer systems and telecommunications networks. The Russian national suspect would benefit from diplomatic protection on Italian territory. Moscow's diplomatic representation in Rome has not yet expressed official positions on the matter.
Guido Crosetto, the defence minister, used the social network X to comment on the operation. He described the hybrid conflict as "the tip of an enormous iceberg", composed of foreign adversaries and internal accomplices ready to trade their homeland in exchange for personal gain. In a statement released to the press, he stressed that the Italian government tolerates no leniency towards those who jeopardise the integrity of the Republic.
Similar precedents are not lacking. In 2021, a naval officer named Walter Biot was caught handing over documents to a member of the Russian embassy in a garage in the capital. The courts subsequently punished him with a sentence of thirty years in prison.
Source: Cotidianul.ro