Italian soldier Walter Biot, who was arrested for spying for Russia, had limited access to classified information about NATO activities.

This was stated by Defense Minister Lorenzo Guerini at a meeting of the parliamentary defense committee, ANSA reports.

“The officer held a position that allowed him to view classified material, but his duties, which did not include command or management activities, allowed him to access evaluation documents and recommendations, but not to direct operations or details of national and NATO capabilities,” Guerini said.

He noted that the Ministry of Defense has not yet received access to the case materials and cannot assess the degree of secrecy of the documents handed over by Biot to the employee of the Russian Embassy.

Recall that on April 1, Italian security forces detained Italian and Russian servicemen as part of an investigation into espionage.

The arrests were made immediately after a secret meeting between the two soldiers. Both were arrested at the scene after handing over classified documents by an Italian officer in exchange for a sum of money.

The Russian military was expelled from Italy because he has diplomatic status.

Biot is married and has four children. One of them has serious health problems and needs constant and expensive care. Perhaps this was the reason why the officer decided to sell the information.