Italy investigating suspicious cash withdrawals by Russian embassy staffers in Rome
November 20, 2023 3 Comments
AUTHORITIES IN ITALY ARE investigating a series of suspicious cash withdrawals that were made from accounts belonging to the Russian embassy in Rome, according to reports in the Italian press. On November 14, the Rome-based daily La Repubblica reported that the Financial Intelligence Unit (UIF) of the Bank of Italy had launched a probe to uncover out exactly who made the cash withdrawals and who the money might have gone to.
According to the Italian newspaper, Russian diplomatic personnel withdrew nearly €4 million ($4.35 million) in cash from two accounts belonging to the Russian embassy in Rome. Russian embassy staffers reportedly withdrew the €4 million on 21 separate instances, sometimes in portions amounting to €100,000 at a time. The withdrawals drew the attention of the UIF, which is now reportedly investigating the withdrawals.
La Repubblica said that UIF investigators are anchoring their probe on several hypotheses. These include the possibility that the cash withdrawals were meant to bypass the progressively stricter financial sanctions that the European Union has been imposing on Moscow. The bulk of these sanctions began shortly February 2022, when Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Notably, Russian embassy staffers started to withdraw the funds almost immediately after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began.
The correlation between the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the cash withdrawals has led Italian authorities to entertain another hypothesis, namely that Rome embassy staffers have been using the cash to pay Russian intelligence personnel working without a diplomatic cover in Italy and elsewhere in Europe. A third hypothesis is that Russian intelligence personnel have been using the cash to support information operations that target European audiences. According to La Repubblica, the cash could have been used for “paying influencers to espouse the Kremlin’s cause in Italy, thus influencing public opinion”.
► Author: Joseph Fitsanakis | Date: 20 November 2023 | Permalink
intelNews.org 
I favour “the cash withdrawals were meant to bypass the progressively stricter financial sanctions that the European Union has been imposing on Moscow” theory.
Rather than Moscow risking blowing natural cover/illegals operations if “Rome embassy staffers [diplomats, used] the cash to pay Russian intelligence personnel working without a diplomatic cover in Italy and elsewhere in Europe.
Like other major players Russia would be at pains to keep its diplomats completely separate from its illegals activities…unless it was really, really desperate.
Belgique, le 21-11-2023
Good morning Pete,
This question concerns potential activities related to intelligence or espionage operations, involving the use of money from the Rome embassy to pay Russian intelligence personnel without diplomatic cover in Italy and Europe. However, I would like to emphasize that supporting or participating in illegal activities, including undeclared intelligence operations, is contrary to national and international laws governed by diplomacy.
Embassy activities are generally governed by international law and diplomatic agreements.
The use of diplomatic money for unofficial or illegal activities could have serious consequences on international relations and the reputation of the country in question; however embassies are governed by their own national law within the embassy.
This concerns in particular the possibility of an undercover agent or a defector agent under the protection of the Russian embassy, transiting for a short time in Italy, it is common to use this diplomatic cover in certain types of operation !
This is part of a context where numerous initiatives from regulators and organizations are calling for greater transparency, readability, reliability, relevance, comparability, etc. of non-financial information and for interconnection between financial data. and non-financial are established within the Russian framework, since the European Union updated various sanctions against Russia.
This obvious that Italy, is concerned in a specific or questions on international law, diplomatic activities or other related subjects, do not hesitate to clarify them, and I will do my best to provide useful information however, you know that we cannot always discuss illegal activities or activities contrary to the ethical principles of the intelligence service, particularly in very specific contexts because these are perhaps still in progress, and it could put the security of agents in particular at risk. unsafe service.
Please note that many embassies in Europe or abroad use this logistics to deploy, for example, their defectors and yes the puzzle of counter-espionage….
Yours truly.
Pascal Lembree.
Hi Pascal
I agree with you completely.
Regards Pete