MicroSD cards hidden in a wall cavity, cash paid at about €4,000 a dossier, meetings on public benches north of Rome. That is the tradecraft prosecutors in Italy say they uncovered when they arrested two retired intelligence officers on July 7, 2026.
The suspects are Gavino Raoul Piras and Vincenzo Di Pasquale, both 59, both former members of the domestic agency AISI. A joint team of civilian and military prosecutors is pursuing charges of espionage, unlawful disclosure of state secrets and unauthorized computer access, Zenit reported. Piras’s lawyers deny he handed any classified material to Russia.
The Russian contact
According to prosecutors, the material went to Mikhail Astakhov, described as a GRU officer working under diplomatic cover as a military attaché at the Russian embassy in Rome. Court papers cited by Defense News say Astakhov paid Piras to recruit informants inside the Italian military. Piras had been under surveillance since May 2025, and investigators believe he drew on six sources, four of them serving soldiers, as eualive reported. Defense News counted five alleged informants under investigation.
What Astakhov wanted was specific. He asked about the Samp-T air defense system already operating in Ukraine, Leonardo’s Michelangelo Dome, which is due for testing in November, and the MBDA CAMM-ER missile Ukraine is considering assembling. He also probed Italian plans to buy Storm Shadow missiles, European rearmament, the propulsion firm Avio and a Leonardo sub-sea drone in trials.
“All that I can give you, I will give you,” Piras is recorded telling him.
Expulsions and a Vatican thread
Italy gave two Russian attachés, Ivan Petrovich Gorbachev and Astakhov, three days to leave. The Foreign Ministry said their activities were incompatible with the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. Russian spokeswoman Maria Zakharova promised “an adequate response.”
Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani rejected the idea of a tit-for-tat. “The two people expelled from Italy were engaged in espionage activities damaging to national security: it was certainly not a whim of Italy’s,” he said. Defence Minister Guido Crosetto called the affair part of Russia’s hybrid war against Italy. Relations were already strained. Rome expelled 30 Russian diplomats in April 2022, and Moscow answered in May by expelling 24 Italians.
One odd detail sits in the file. In an intercepted conversation on October 9, 2025, a former agent reminded the Russian officer of written instructions from Moscow to keep working “with the Vatican.” Court documents do not say what that meant, and investigators have not alleged that Vatican officials knowingly helped Russian intelligence, Zenit reported.
Sources
- Italy busts Russian spy ring collecting data on Ukrainian air defense vulnerabilities
- Rising tensions between Italy and Russia following arrests for espionage by Rome prosecutors
- Investigation into Russian Espionage in Italy Points to the Vatican as a Target
