Last Tuesday, a mixture of Italian police forces made an arrest of Walter Biot a fifty-four year old Italian Navy Captian. Biot was accused of delivering a memory card containing one-hundred and eighty-one photos of classified Italian and NATO documents to a Russian Military officer in exchange for five-thousand euros, the equivalent of five thousand-nine hundred dollars. Roberto di Vitom, Biot’s lawyer released a statement saying that Biot had admitted to the exchange of information for money with his Russian counterpart, but had denied the contents was classified documents belonging to Italy and NATO.
These acquisitions were confirmed by Luigi Di Maio the Italian Foreign Minister this past Wednesday after The Italian Government held a trial of the Naval Captain which resulted in his expulsion from Military service and two Russian officials. Di Maio summoned Russian ambassador Sergey Razov to inform him of the countries decision on the matter. The Russian Diplomat who was caught with Biot was able to avoid being detained due to diplomatic immunity while within Italy’s borders.
Some have speculated that these actions could throw the relations within Europe back into a cold-war like state. However, Russia and Italys relationship has been fairly warm in comparison to most of Russia’s European counterparts. Russia has downplayed the occurrences in an effort to help propel their own Covid-19 vaccine called the Sputnik V vaccine which they hope to have approved by the European Union. The vaccines approval would give a much needed boost to the diminishing Russian economy.
SOURCES
https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/31/europe/italy-russia-espionage-expulsion-intl/index.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/31/world/europe/italy-russia-spy.html
https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2021/03/31/italy-expels-russians-after-spies-caught-red-handed-a73422
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2021/03/31/648465/Russia-Italy-expel-diplomats
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-italy-russia-spies/suspected-italian-spy-gave-russia-highly-confidential-material-source-idUSKBN2BO5BA
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