Mikhail Astakov paid €4,000 ($4,500) in cash for each package of data. The microSD cards that held it were left in a designated dead drop in a wall. Astakov is a military attaché at the Russian embassy in Rome, and Italian police say he was running a spy operation aimed at Western air defense systems supplied to Ukraine, Defense News reported.
Police surveilled the suspected officer of Russia’s Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU) as he met an informant, Gavino Piras, a 59-year-old former employee of the Italian secret service. Piras was arrested this week with another former Italian intelligence worker. Court documents say Astakov handed him lists of information requests at clandestine meetings.
What Moscow asked for
The recorded requests named the European Samp-T system, which has been transferred to Kyiv, and the Michelangelo Dome, an air defense system from the Italian company Leonardo that is scheduled for testing in Ukraine in November. Leonardo executives have said the Dome has an open architecture, so partner countries can plug in air defense assets they already own. Astakov also wanted details on MBDA’s CAMM-ER missile, which Ukraine plans to assemble at home.
The list ran wider. A September 2025 request asked how effective strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities had been, how badly the program was damaged and whether work could resume. Others covered Italy’s plans to buy Storm Shadow missiles, rearmament plans in Italy, the EU and NATO, EU defense priorities, help for Ukraine in developing long-range missiles, and an underwater drone Leonardo is testing in La Spezia. In April 2025 he asked about Avio, an Italian engine maker, months before the company partnered with the US Army to supply solid-propellant rocket motors.
Investigators say Piras recruited informants inside the Italian military to supply the classified material. Five suspected informants are under investigation.
What Piras told the attaché
According to court documents, Piras told Astakov that British intelligence, not Italian, helps Ukraine carry out long-range strikes on Russian oil facilities. He also said Italian specialists were examining a Russian T-90 tank and did not understand how its mounted machine gun works on its own. If they worked it out, he said, they would pass it on.
After the arrest on Tuesday, Piras’s lawyer denied that his client gave classified information to Russia. On Thursday the Italian government announced it was expelling two military attachés from the Russian embassy, Astakov among them. Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said Moscow keeps using hybrid warfare against the West and Italy, and described the conduct as interference in Italian institutions and national security.
Cameras along the supply routes
The arrests came as Dutch services reported a separate Russian effort. The AIVD and MIVD said state-affiliated hackers broke into internet-connected security cameras and home intercoms in NATO countries and Ukraine to watch military transport, targeting IP cameras along routes used to move equipment to Kyiv. The goal was to learn what types and volumes of weapons were going to Ukrainian forces.
“Organizations with IP cameras on these routes have already been warned so they can take action,” the Dutch services said. Their report added that getting into a camera over the internet “is often relatively easy, as many IP cameras connected to the internet are insufficiently protected.” The hackers relied on factory-default passwords, outdated software and unpatched firmware, which let Russian intelligence track movements without drones or satellite imagery.
