(by Massimiliano D'Elia) Russia today gave two Italian diplomats a week to leave the country. This was reported by the Italian Foreign Ministry in a note, in a growing "escalation" of deportation actions after the incident of the nerve attack against the former Russian spy who lived in England, Serghei Skripal.
Last Monday, Italy had expelled two Russian diplomats, in line with the will of NATO and the European Union to "pander / support" Great Britain. In order to convince the allies to expel the "Russian spies" disguised as diplomats, Great Britain had provided "dossiers" complete with intelligence analyzes to Western partners. Procedure considered anomalous by the experts, because usually "excerpts" of dossiers and not complete documents are exchanged, precisely in order not to compromise the "modus operandi" of the Security Agencies. England, on the other hand, in order to convince friendly countries, considered it appropriate to provide the details of the investigation into the Skripal case, where it would have emerged "clearly", the responsibility of the Kremlin in the attack on 4 March. Russia has always denied the paternity of the attack, asking to be able to actively participate in the investigations, as required by international rules on the subject, when there is the involvement of its compatriots, that is Skripal's daughter.
The Russian foreign minister summoned a large number of Western diplomats yesterday to expose the retaliatory measures he was taking with the West after several countries had expelled Russian diplomats.
Italy could not have done otherwise, and immediately aligned itself with the decisions of Western governments that are expelling Russian diplomats from their countries, those considered undercover "spies" with the status of diplomats.
Russia is carrying out, in retaliation, the "mirror" expulsions, applying the theory of "as much as". One of the problems that several analysts have highlighted is that expelling "diplomats" from Russia, coming from Western countries is unimaginable damage because it will then be difficult to replace them in a "closed" society like the Russian one. On the other hand, despite the expulsions, Russia has a dense network of diplomats around the world that includes thousands of officials. An almost impossible network to unhinge. Countries like Italy, on the other hand, cannot afford to lose references in “closed” countries like Russia or China. So the greatest damage, with the expulsion of the two Italian diplomats, is above all for our country rather than for Russia.