Russia has expelled Italy's military attaché in Moscow and a collaborator, prompting Rome to summon the Russian chargé d'affaires and accuse the Kremlin of blatant retaliation. Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said the expulsion was without justification and constituted a brazen reprisal for Italy's July 9 expulsion of two Russian military attachés caught conducting espionage against Italian national security.
The Italian chargé d'affaires, Giovanni Scopa, was summoned to the Russian Foreign Ministry following the expulsions. The diplomatic rift deepened after Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni accused Russia of offending the entire Italian nation, and President Sergio Mattarella compared Russia's invasion of Ukraine to the aggression that led to the Second World War.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova dismissed Mattarella's remarks as "blasphemous inventions." The espionage case that triggered the crisis resulted in the arrest of two former Italian intelligence officers on charges of spying for Russia.