The Italian government is officially expelling two military attachés from the Embassy of the Russian Federation in Rome over their alleged involvement in espionage activities, Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani announced on his X account.
Earlier, prosecutors in Rome conducted a large-scale investigation that uncovered and documented in detail espionage activities carried out by employees of the Russian diplomatic mission.
The individuals involved in the case are military attachés Ivan Gorbachev and Mikhail Astakhov. Italy’s foreign minister said that both Russian representatives accused of espionage must leave Rome within the next three days.
Commenting on the incident, Antonio Tajani emphasized that Moscow continues to actively use hybrid methods to carry out attacks against Western countries and Italy in particular.
According to the Italian foreign minister, such actions by Russian intelligence services constitute a serious and completely unacceptable interference in the stable functioning of Italian state institutions and directly threaten the country’s national security.
