Italy has arrested its Navy Captain for sharing classified information with Russia, expelled 2 Russian diplomats afterwards
Italy has expelled 2 Russian diplomats today, i.e., Wednesday, March 31, 2021, after an Italian Navy Officer was arrested for handing over classified documents to a Russian Military Official.
The Italian Navy Officer – Walter Biot and the Russian Military Official have been accused of serious crimes tied to spying and State security. Italy immediately summoned the Russian Ambassador – Sergey Razov and suspended 2 Russian diplomats who are believed to be involved in espionage.
While Biot was the Captain of the Frigate, the names of the expelled Russian diplomats have not been shared considering the criticality of the matter.
Taking it to twitter, the Foreign Minister of Italy – Luigi Di Maio tweeted (translated from Italian), “We transmitted the firm protest of the Italian government to the Russian ambassador in Italy and notified the immediate expulsion of the two Russian officials involved in this very serious affair. Original tweet in Italian:
Abbiamo trasmesso all’ambasciatore russo in Italia la ferma protesta del governo italiano e notificato l’immediata espulsione dei due funzionari russi coinvolti in questa gravissima vicenda. pic.twitter.com/B8Q2OpZfBt
— Luigi Di Maio (@luigidimaio) March 31, 2021
The arrest was carried out by the Raggruppamento Operativo Speciale (ROS) or Special Operations Group, a part of the Italian Carabinieri, which coordinates investigative activities against organized crime
As per Italian Carabinieri, the exchange of documents took place in a car parking for cash amount of €5,000 (U.S. $ 5,900). The documents shared are believed to have North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) secrets, thereby placing other countries’ national security at risk.
The Russian Embassy did confirm the involvement of a Military Officer but said any further comment was inappropriate. The Foreign Ministry of Russia said it regretted the expulsions of two embassy staff and would make a further announcement on possible steps in response. The Kremlin said it hoped the very positive and constructive nature of Russian-Italian relations will continue.
Speaking on the occasion the Kremlin Spokesman – Dmitry Peskov said, “We don’t have information about the reasons for or the circumstances of this detention.”
It is being investigated if Russians tried to siphon funds to the league party of Ex- Deputy Prime Minister of Italy – Matteo Salvini. Moreover, during the Coronavirus (COVID-19) in 2021, Russia had sent supplies to Italy with a message, “From Russia with Love”, which was led to security fears given the large number of military officers sent in.
The relations between Russia and NATO hit a low when Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in 2014. United States (U.S.), which is also a member of NATO accused the President of Russia – Vladimir Putin of being a “killer”. This also was not liked by Russia. Last week, another member of NATO, Bulgaria expelled two Russian diplomats for intelligence activity incompatible with diplomatic relations. Recently, there have been some differences between Russia and European Union (E.U.) over the alleged poisoning of Kremlin critic – Alexei Navalny.
Italy and Russia do share some friendly relations. In 2019, an Italian and Russian were arrested for colluding to steal trade secrets from an American aviation company.
