Italy is expelling two Russian officials in connection with an espionage case, Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio said Wednesday on his Facebook page.
The expulsions followed the arrest Tuesday of an Italian navy captain and the detention of a Russian military officer who is stationed in Rome, both on charges of espionage.
The two men were “caught in flagranti and by surprise” and were arrested right after the Italian navy captain gave classified information to the Russian officer ‘in exchange for money,'” the Carabinieri, or Italian paramilitary police, said in a press release.
The Russian ambassador was summoned to the Foreign Ministry in Rome on Wednesday morning, Di Maio said.
“During the convocation of the Russian Ambassador to Italy at the Foreign Ministry, we let him know about the strong protest of the Italian Government and notified the immediate expulsion of the two Russian officials involved in this extremely grave affair,” the minister’s Facebook post said.
“I thank our intelligence and all of the state’s apparatus that every day work for the security of our country.”
