Italian authorities have expelled two Russian Embassy employees from the country on suspicion of espionage, according to an announcement by Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani on July 6.
The two men are military attachés at the Russian embassy in Rome. Tajani identified them by their full names: Ivan Petrovich Gorbachev and Mikhail Vasilyevich Astakhov. They are required to leave Italy within three days.
“Moscow continues to use its hybrid weapons to attack the West and Italy. This is a serious and unacceptable interference in Italian institutions and national security,” Tajani wrote.
The Insider found that the attachés are officers of Russia’s military intelligence agency, the GRU. Mikhail Astakhov, 56, is from Tula. Leaked flight records from 2015 to 2017 show that he made at least four trips on the Moscow-Rome route. Ivan Gorbachev, 47, is from the Bryansk Region. In addition to Italy, Finland had also been a frequent destination for his foreign trips.
Both men appear in leaked databases with Moscow addresses located on Khoroshevskoye Highway, where the GRU's headquarters are located. The specific headquarters address, 76 Khoroshevskoye Highway, appears in leaks under Astakhov’s name at least as far back as 2013.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry has already responded to the expulsion announcement, saying Moscow would give an “appropriate response.”
Earlier this week, Italian authorities arrested two Italian citizens on the suspicion that they had been cooperating with Russian intelligence services. According to investigators, the main suspect, a former carabinieri officer, passed information to a Russian contact in exchange for money. He had allegedly received the information from four active-duty members of the Italian army.
