Re: RUSSIA covertly acquiring information about Italian Marine Border security?
Most Syrian refugees took the far shorter Greek route, and then up through the Balkans. That route has been blocked by Germany getting EU pay 6 billions to Turkey to stop them.
Italy from the sea mostly faces African migrants arriving through Libya.
It's beyond doubt that massive refugees/migrants movements, or the fear of them, created the conditions to increase the votes given to populist parties in EU, many of which are very friendly with Putin, thereby the actual situation is very advantageous for Russia, which has no reason to modify it.
Regardless of migration, if Russia plans a Mediterranean presence from Syria and the like, it will inevitably face Italian Marina Militare given the Italian position in the middle of it. Attempts to gather intelligence about their operations looks inevitable, and may also open access to NATO data.