The Russian military attaché in Rome paid €4,000 ($4,500) in cash for each package of data, and collected it on microSD cards left in a hole in a wall. That detail comes from court documents in an Italian espionage case that ended this week with two arrests and two expulsions, Defense News reported.
Police had been watching a suspected officer of Russia’s Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU) as he dealt with an informant. Investigators identified him as Mikhail Astakov, the attaché at the Russian embassy. His contact was Gavino Piras, 59, a former employee of the Italian secret service. Piras was arrested on Tuesday along with another former Italian intelligence worker. On Thursday the government announced it was expelling two military attaches from the embassy, Astakov among them.
What Moscow wanted
According to the investigation, Astakov handed Piras lists of questions at clandestine meetings. Piras, in turn, recruited informants inside the Italian military to answer them. Five suspected informants are now under investigation.
The requests centered on European help for Ukraine’s defense against missiles and drones. Astakov asked about the Samp-T system, which has been transferred to Kyiv. He asked about the Michelangelo Dome, an air defense system from the Italian company Leonardo that is scheduled for testing in Ukraine in November. Leonardo executives say it uses an open architecture so partner countries can plug in air defense assets they already own. He also wanted details on MBDA’s CAMM-ER missile, which Ukraine plans to assemble at home.
The list ran wider than air defense. A September 2025 request asked how effective the 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 policy priorities, and help for Ukraine in building long-range missiles. Astakov also asked about an underwater drone Leonardo is testing in La Spezia.
In April 2025 he sought information on Avio, the Italian engine maker, months before the company partnered with the US Army to supply solid-propellant rocket motors.
What Piras told him
Court documents say Piras told the attaché that British intelligence, not Italian, helps Ukraine carry out long-range strikes on Russian oil facilities. He also reported that Italian specialists were studying a Russian T-90 tank and could not work out how its mounted machine gun operates autonomously. If they managed to find out, he said, they would pass it on.
Piras’s lawyer denied, after the Tuesday arrest, that his client gave classified information to Russia.
Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said Moscow keeps using hybrid warfare against the West and against Italy, and called the activity interference in Italian institutions and national security.
Cameras on the supply routes
The arrests landed alongside a separate warning from the Netherlands. Its civilian and military intelligence services, the AIVD and the MIVD, reported that Russian state-affiliated hackers had compromised internet-connected security cameras and home intercoms in NATO states and Ukraine to watch military transport. The cameras sat along routes used to move equipment to Kyiv, and the aim was to learn what types and volumes of weapons were going through.
“When an IP camera is identified, an attacker can try to gain access to it via the internet,” the Dutch report said. “This is often relatively easy, as many IP cameras connected to the internet are insufficiently protected.” Factory-default passwords, outdated software and unpatched firmware did the rest. Organizations with cameras on the routes have already been warned, the Dutch services said.
Sources
- Italy Arrests Former Intelligence Officer in Russian Spy Ring Investigation
- Italy Dismantles Russian Spy Ring Hunting Ukraine Air Defense Secrets
