The wife of an Italian navy captain arrested this week for allegedly passing confidential documents to a Russian official has said her husband must have acted “out of desperation”.
Tensions between Rome and Moscow are running high after the Italian foreign ministry ordered the expulsion on Wednesday of the Russian military official allegedly involved in the spying case and another official.
The navy captain, identified by the Italian press as Walter Biot, was arrested on Tuesday night after police caught him allegedly handing secret files to an employee of the Russian embassy’s military attache in return for cash.
Biot’s wife, Claudia Carbonara, said she had not been aware of her husband’s alleged actions, but insisted he was not a spy.
“If he took money then he did so out of desperation,” she told La Stampa. “He is not a traitor … if he made a mistake then he did so because we are in lots of debt. We have four children, one of whom is sick, and the costs never end.”
Biot, 55, reportedly told police after his arrest that he was heavily indebted and had a child with health problems.
The meeting on Tuesday night reportedly took place in a shopping centre car park in Rome, where Biot allegedly received €5,000 (£4,200) in cash in return for documents said to have come from a unit of Italy’s defence ministry. Police seized the money as soon as it was exchanged.
The spying suspicions first arose about four months ago after Italy’s internal intelligence and security agency signalled a relationship between the navy captain and the Russian official. Biot is alleged to have received €40,000 for selling “top secret” Nato files and sensitive Italian military dossiers.
Italy’s foreign minister, Luigi Di Maio, told the senate on Wednesday that the alleged exchange was “a hostile act of extreme gravity”. He did not clarify the alleged role of the second Russian official.
The Russian foreign ministry issued a statement saying it would make a further announcement “on our possible next steps in relation to a situation that does not conform with the level of bilateral ties”.
The UK foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, wrote on Twitter that the UK “stands in solidarity with Italy, exposing and taking action against Russia’s malign and destabilising activity that is designed to undermine our Nato ally”.
