Starting in early 2023, two men allegedly collaborated with Russian intelligence services to provide information of a sensitive nature, such as mapping CCTV systems in the cities of Milan and Rome
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They would have sold information “sensitive” to Russia. This is the accusation brought against two Italian entrepreneurs aged 34 and 60, specialized in technology and partners in the same company in Brianza.
The Public Prosecutor, Alessandro Gobbis, together with the Deputy for Antiterrorism, Eugenio Fusco, and the Milan Prosecutor, Marcello Viola, notified the conclusion of the preliminary investigation, carried out by the Ros of Milan, in collaboration with the cryptocurrencies section of the Anti-Forgery Monetary Command of the Carabinieri in Rome.
The investigation, in which Aise, the Italian foreign intelligence agency, also collaborated, began in April 2024 and, after initial elements, suddenly accelerated before the summer when the military carried out searches at the homes of suspects, seizing computer devices and documents.
The crime with which the two entrepreneurs are accused is that of “corruption of a citizen by a foreigner”aggravated by article 270 bis because it is committed for the purposes of terrorism and subversion.
Alleged Italian spies allegedly acted out of ‘political sympathies’
The two men allegedly acted by “political sympathies” and by ideological commitment by espousing the Russian cause in an anti-Western and anti-Atlanticist spirit at least since the start of the war in Ukraine. The economic motive is, for the moment, reduced to one-off payments of a few thousand euros in cryptocurrencies.
In some discussions consulted by Il Fatto Quotidiano and published by the newspaper on Thursday, we can read excerpts of conversations in which alleged FSB agents address requests and missions.
From the start of 2023, the two accused “will promote cooperation with Russian intelligence services” pour “provide information of a sensitive nature”such as “the mapping of the video surveillance systems of the cities of Milan and Rome, paying particular attention to “gray areas”that is to say to areas of the city which are not covered by cameras or to “dash cams” installed on taxis without the knowledge of the taxi drivers themselves.
Biot affair: confirmation of the sentence of 29 years in prison
In another case, the judges of the first section of the Court of Cassation made final, on Wednesday, the sentence of 29 years and two months pronounced by the military appeal against frigate captain Walter Biot.
The officer, arrested by the Ros Carabinieri on March 30, 2021, is accused of selling secret information to a Russian embassy official in exchange for money. For the same case, Biot was also sentenced at first instance, last January, by the judges of the ordinary court to 20 years in prison.
