♪ >> time for a quick check of the top stories. george floyd's girlfriend has taken the stand in the trial of the former police officer accused in his murder. courteney ross shared details of the opioid addiction. the defense will later argue that it was the main factor in floyd's death. >> we both suffered from chronic pain, mine in my neck and it -- his was in his back. we both have prescriptions, but

after prescriptions that were filled -- we got addicted. >> the world health organization has criticized the european union's vaccine rollout as slow. myanmar's civilian leader facing the most serious charge and is being forced from power by the military and carries up to 14 years in prison. activists have been continuing to protest two months after the general seized power. a ship carrying 1200 people who fled violence in mozambique has arrived at a port. family members were waiting outside the port to see which of their loved ones were among them. armed people storms killing

hundreds of people. the suez canal authority says that the country expects more than a billion dollars in compensation after a cargo vessel blocked at the canal for more than a week. losses and loss transit fees, but he did not specify who would be paying. a leader of a palestinian israeli party has called for more better coexistence between arabs and jews. prime minister netanyahu -- his party has emerged as a kingmaker following israel's latest inconclusive election and at -- it won 4 seats. thank you for watching, back for now. -- in an hour. ♪

>> italy has expelled the two russian officials after accusations of espionage. the latest in a string of recent spying allegations of moscow. so how will nations deal with this crisis? this is "inside story." ♪ >> hello, welcome to the program. the italian government has expelled the two russian officials and it follows police allegations that an italian naval officer was caught selling classified documents to a russian envoy. the accusations are the latest

in a number of recent charges in espionage against russia. the stolen documents reportedly include top-secret information from nato and the italian military. moscow says it is unaware of the circumstances of the case that it take possible -- could take possible steps. >> what happened is unacceptable and there will be consequences. there is no doubt about it, because it is unacceptable that someone comes here to pay our navy officers to get to nato information. it is not just our security at risk, but that of the entire nato alliance and we cannot accept this. with the international actors we have to deal with, we must always have a channel of communication that allows us to not escalate. nobody wants it. >> russia says the incidents should not affect its good relations with italy.

the kremlin spokesman said, we have no information on the reasons and circumstances of this detention, but in any case, we hope that we will keep the relations between russia and italy positive and constructive. british foreign secretary dominic raab has expressed support for italy saying in a tweet, the case stands in solidarity with italy and its actions today, exposing and taking action against russia's malign activity that is designed to undermine our nato ally. let's have a look at some of the most recent spying as you they -- buying accusations against moscow. bulgaria broke up a spy ring the bet involved bulgarian officials. a german man is facing charges after police accused him of

passing the floor to russian military intelligence in february. also, a swedish man was arrested for selling sensitive designs to a russian diplomats. in december, a dutch intelligence agency said that it is uncovered two russian diplomats that was attacking the nation's science and technology sectors. ♪ >> let's bring in our guest in rome, a journalist. in moscow, a defense and military analyst, and also in rome, a senior analyst of the russia and balkans desk at the center for international studies. welcome to the program. this is not the first case of espionage targeting russia, probably will not be the last, but what is particular about

this case in italy? >> certainly, no one was pleased with finding out in this country that an italian navy officer was handing over classified documents to a russian official. this certainly does not please anybody, particularly because those documents obviously hold information that italy does not want to be releasing to other countries, particularly outside of the european union and the nato alliance. having said this, italy has a very strong relationship with russia. it is possibly the country in europe that is closest and has a warmer relations with russia in the european union are amongst european union countries. >> the russian spies, from the

statement, from the italian foreign ministry and the police, they were looking for a crucial military information about the italian military and to nato. are you likely to see some profound damage to the italian russian relations here? >> i don't think it is going to be any lasting damage. there is going to be most likely russian tit for tat, expulsion, an that is most likely going to be the end of the story with rome and the moscow, and they expressed the opinion that they do not want to rearrange foreign relations because of this unfortunate events. so everyone understands that this is business as usual, and that is how the system of gathering information works, and

it is not clear that the information passed was really sensitive. there was a report that the italian naval officer was paid 5000 euro in cash and that is not a lot of money in terms of kind of espionage work. if it was really sensitive, it would be much more, and it would be handled not by the russian diplomat, but by a specially designated case officer. >> the italians should be offended and one way or another because the intelligence agency was following the case of this officer. this is something -- someone that has been bribed for military information about the italian military. what is the general sentime in aly about this particular case? marco: the general sentiment is

that the italian institution and the italian public opinion feels but trade to buy what happened, but not for the 5000 euro sum of money. in italy, there is a very polarized opinion on russia. you have a strong anti-russian faction, and also stronger, pro-russia faction. what happened is a huge argument in favor of anti-russian faction , and a strong argument against pro-russian factions. generally, the idea of the public opinion in the institution is to try to build the war and strong relations between rome and moscow. also because there are very

strong economic ties in the first are the contracts on energy and the supply. after what happened from the spy case, the italian government sent a clear political message to moscow. the message is that this kind of action will not be tolerated anymore. >> as marco was saying about this whole divide in italy, we have seen the same pattern and other places where similar incidents took place, andsome t, and the other saying, no, because we have strong historic ties with the russians. do you think that russia is trying to tap on that particular divide in the european continent for political leverage? sabina: i think that russia

needs to keep decent relationship with the european union. in particular at the moment, italy hasnk been helping russia with the possible sale of aid sputnik vaccine, covid vaccine in the european union. i think, similar to what marco said, yes, there is a divide amongst the people for whogenerh italy, between italy and russia are good that, does not want to push for a more complicated relation because russian needs italy. italy is as i said, one of the strongest eu allies that it has.

>> this whole thing is really extraordinary in the sense that you might think that the whole west-east espionage activities were over by the end of the cold war when you look at what has been happening over the last few years in europe. russia using absolutely sophisticated and sometimes very primitive means to try to get more information from europe. what is russia trying to establish ear? pavel: you should really understand that russia has two main intelligence services. military intelligence and former first direct for kjb -- kgb, so one is political and the other is military. as political as we are, taking into consideration political,

different things, and could maybe think about what is important and russian foreign policy. military intelligence, they do not, they do not think -- even had no ideas about the political situation. they know the political situation is bad, including italy, nato are an enemy, and we should gather all the information we can get. they do not have political agenda. they are not running a political agenda. they are getting information about their enemy. >> that does not seem to be the perception that we have in europe. many european countries, nato in particular have been saying that the gru, the main intelligence arm of the russian military is using those spying activities to

undermine democracy by influencing elections in the western world. >> yes, there is a high level of awareness of what the gru is doing to europe. it is what nato analysts call ivory warfare or nonlinear warfare. it is a new way to conduct and world and in particularly, europe. and it makes of cyber activities , espionage activities, so using of a military intelligence, and i think that for europe, the most important danger along with the spy activity made by russia

is the psychological and informational warfare. a.k.a., the attempt to influence not only the political aspects of life and institution, but the ideas of the public opinion that this is an attempt to change the perception of european citizens towards migration, towards immigration, so this is a very strong energy track because it runs in the long term and not in the short term. there is no proof activities iso influence elections. but through risk is that they can influence general opinion.

>> you do not think that this will have far-reaching consequences of the relations between italy and russia, however, when you look at the russians rushing out there espionage in europe, germany, bulgaria, the netherlands -- isn't this something that could undermine cooperation between the europeans and the russians? sabina: i think, yes. italy is not going to be the main problem. i certainly think this is a methods that russians use, the 5000 euros for information is a small amount, so it should appear that the documents provided have to do with military telecommunications. i would like to make it very clear that in italy, this is a rare occurrence. we have not seen cases with this

kind of espionage with russia since the cold war. certainly, this is not going to affect relations with italy, but again, i would like to repeat, i would like to say that this is a methodology that the russians are using not only in italy obviously, but in italy obviously, but now there european countries and we have seen this happen and it could certainly undermine the relationship between russia and the european union in the future. even possibly in the short term. >> in certain cases, particularly in bulk area and one in portugal -- in bulk area and one in portugal, prosecutors were saying this was a clear indication by the giu of trying to get more intelligence from nato. why this fixation from nato itself?

widely still seen as an existential threat for the russians and this explains why they're carrying out those activities? pavel: of course it is the main enemy. the russian general staff and the gr you -- simply called gu, it is the integral part of the russian stead. they are given orders by their superiors to gather information of the enemy which are maybe going to have a war in the coming several years, maybe not, and of course, hopefully. field officers working in the west under diplomatic cover, they are ordered to recruit assets. the more assets you recruit, the better the assets are, the better for you, and you are given marks like in school. here in headquarters in moscow, by analysts for how important are your recruits.

if you do not recruit good assets -- if you do, you get metals, you get promotion, and if you don't, you don't. assets are also played money and you can also skim some money off the payment of the assets, so it is very important to all the time being room -- be working on recruiting. that is what the russian intelligence are doing, but they do not seek political information, because if the assets say inside the italian government are something, that is bad, because asset with the former kgb. that intellige -- the military is trying to be specifically military, and military intelligence that gathers military information. >> we have seen some reactions

condemning what happened in italy, showing solidarity with the italian government, but are we anywhere near to 2018 when many european countries along with nato took punitive actions against russia following the poison attack and the u.k.? marco: if we take it back to the skrupal case, we will find different evaluation of the european response on the poisoning. according to many leaders, the answer of the european government and the u.k. government was not strong enough because no one tried to sanction the real pillar of russian economic power in europe. there is the gas markets and the

power of the oligarchs in london and other capitals in europe. on the other side, a part of european, the response was fair enough. today we are at a crossroad because we need as europe to send a strong message to moscow, but on the other site, we cannot ignore russia and its power in the energy market and its role in many dossier in which we need to deal with russia just like libya and syria. >> many western officials have been repeatedly saying over the past few years that the russian espionage activities are well-funded, aggressive, and politically protected by the top echelons of the russian

government. if you take it from what happened over the last few years and all of those european countries that were targeted, how do you see the confrontation? sabina: it is a confrontation and as marco said, the european union cannot ignore russia, but also will not tolerate this continuing espionage in its member countries. this is not going to be acceptable for the european union. we have a situation where russia is not exactly being seen positively by the european union , but it is also not being seen positively across the atlantic in the united states. it was just recently that biden called putin a killer. at the moment, russia must do

everything it can to maintain decent relationships with the european union union countries that a can and certainly not to escalate and cause more confrontation. >> getting for the time being is a russian reaction which is brushing aside all of the accusations, saying they were blown out of proportion, however, in europe, the feeling is the russians were very smart and tapping into the old networks of spies, handlers, and people who were sympathetic to former soviet republic, they are triggering that network and they are using that same network, and this is what is creating now a huge problem in europe. >> in moscow, the russian general staff believes that the west is already waging a hybrid war against russia, trying to

delegitimize the present regime, and biden calling putin a killer, that was a part of that the limited -- the deligitimization process. of course, there is a belief at the west is also trying to root root assets inside russia russians to travel abroad, so it is a kind of war. the rules are still more or less being held -- this is kind of seen as business as usual, recruiting and enemy asset in an enemy country and that is a normal kind of procedure. very very important aspect that is very --

>> this is going to be my last question and less than 30 seconds. the americans have been monitoring this wish situation in europe, and they have been very critical of some prosecutors, particularly bulgaria, widely seen as pro-russian in the case of spying activity. is this something that will be the case of a stronger american pressure to further isolate russia in the near future? marco: yes, because it is one of the pillars of joe biden's administration. he promised that during his electoral campaign and his first steps as president shown that current passion, so yes, he will deal with russia as u.s. used it to do during the cold war days, so i expect this kind of new,

difficult relation between moscow and washington. >> sabina, pavel< marco, thank you for your insights. you can see the program again any time by visiting our website al jazeera.com, and go to our facebook page, facebook.com/aji nsidestory. you can see us on twitter @aji nsidestory. bye for now. ♪

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