The microSD cards were left in a hole in a wall. The Russian military attaché in Rome would collect them, and for each package of information he reportedly paid €4,000 in cash.
That is the picture Italian investigators have drawn, according to Defense News, after breaking up an alleged Russian espionage ring in the capital. Police filmed and wiretapped Mikhail Astakov, a military attaché at the Russian embassy whom they accuse of being a GRU officer, as he quizzed an informant about air defense systems that Europe is sending to Ukraine.
Who was arrested
The informant is Gavino Piras, 59, a former member of Italy’s secret service. He was arrested on Tuesday along with a second former Italian intelligence official. Court documents allege Piras used cash from Astakov to recruit informants inside the Italian military. Five of them are under investigation.
His lawyer denies that Piras passed any classified information to Russia.
On Thursday the Italian government announced it was expelling two Russian military attaches from the embassy, Astakov among them. Foreign minister Antonio Tajani said: “Moscow continues to use hybrid warfare to attack the West and Italy.” He called it “serious and unacceptable interference in Italian institutions and national security.”
What Moscow wanted to know
Court documents say Astakov handed over lists of requests from his superiors at secret meetings. The targets were the systems that help Ukraine stop Russian missiles and drones. One was the Samp-T, supplied by Italy and France. Another was the MBDA CAMM-ER missile, which Ukraine is in talks to assemble. A third was the Michelangelo Dome, developed by Italy’s Leonardo with an open architecture that lets partner countries link up the air defenses they already have. Leonardo management has said it will be trialed in Ukraine in November.
The list went well beyond air defense. A note delivered in September 2025 asked about the effect of strikes on Iranian nuclear sites and the prospects of that program restarting, Italy’s plans to buy Storm Shadow missiles, rearmament plans for Italy, the EU and NATO, and help for Ukraine to build long-range missiles. Astakov also asked about an underwater drone Leonardo is testing in La Spezia. In April 2025 he asked about Avio, the Italian propulsion firm, months after it partnered with the US Army to supply solid rocket motors.
In the transcripts, Piras tells him: “All that I can give you, I will give you, tell your boss that.”
He also claims that British, not Italian, intelligence is helping Ukraine with its long-range strikes on Russian oil facilities. And he says Italian experts are studying a Russian T-90 tank and cannot work out how its machine gun operates on its own. “If they manage to steal the secret they will, so be careful,” he tells Astakov.
A separate Dutch warning
The Kyiv Post noted that the arrests coincide with a Dutch intelligence warning. The AIVD and MIVD said Russian state-affiliated hackers broke into internet-connected security cameras and home intercoms in NATO countries and Ukraine to watch military transport along routes used to move equipment to Kyiv. They got in using factory-default passwords, outdated software and unpatched firmware. “This is often relatively easy,” the Dutch report said.
Sources
- Italy busts Russian spy ring collecting data on Ukrainian air defense vulnerabilities
- Italy Arrests Former Intelligence Officer in Russian Spy Ring Investigation
