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The arrest of a former intelligence officer has revived Vienna’s reputation as a spy den. In the photo, a man walks under the stone arches of the Vienna Opera House, a location known from the 1949 spy classic The Third Man.
1 / 3 Photo: Joe Klamar/AFP/TT
Russian agents, stolen cellphones, encrypted chats and a burglary.
The biggest espionage deal in decades unravels in Vienna – and shines a new spotlight on the city’s shady past.
Just months before Austria’s parliamentary elections, the country is rocked by a spy scandal.
At the center is a former employee within the country’s intelligence service. He has been arrested on suspicion of systematically providing Russian security services with sensitive information. But the tangle is much bigger than that – and is believed to go back a long way.
According to experts, it could be the biggest espionage case in modern Austrian history, AP writes.
According to local media, this is expected to lead to political turmoil – not least as the arrested person is said to have close contacts within Austria’s political top echelons.
Connects to fraudsters
During the Cold War, Vienna was known as the espionage capital of the world. To this day, “moles” operate there, a source with access to AFP says. Around 7,000 foreign agents are believed to be based in Vienna.
The arrested 61-year-old man, formerly in charge of Austria’s secret agents, denies the allegations.
Rumors have been rife for several years, but only after a tip from London was he arrested in March. Via Telegram chats, the British had discovered connections between the 61-year-old and Jan Marsalek, chief operating officer of the scandalous company Wirecard, which went underground in connection with a fraud spree in 2020 and later appeared in Belarus.
“Spider in the web”
The escape fueled theories about links to Russia’s military intelligence agency GRU and the FSB security service. Marsalek is believed to be in Moscow today and is described as the “spider in the web” in the network that is now being investigated, AP writes.
The 61-year-old – described by Der Standard newspaper as brutal and unscrupulous – is believed to have helped Marsalek carry out his work for Russia in Austria.
Among other things, he is suspected of having provided the Russians with stolen mobile data from top Austrian officials.
Analyzed murders
He is also said to have spied on a number of people on behalf of Russia, including an FSB defector and the journalist network Bellingcat’s Kremlin-critical reporter Christo Grozev. He was later forced to leave Vienna after a burglary in which, among other things, his computer was stolen. The burglary is discussed in the Telegram chats that the British have come across.
The 61-year-old is said to have also written an analysis for the Russian intelligence service with “suggestions for improvements” after a Kremlin-ordered murder of a Chechen man in Berlin in 2019, AP reports.
The tangle also includes a former head of the Austrian security service, also suspected of espionage. However, he is believed to be sitting safely in Dubai.
FACT Russian intelligence and security services
FSB: Federal Security Service. Basically took over the operations of the infamous KGB after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, initially under the name FSK. The FSB is primarily responsible for counter-espionage, counter-terrorism and border surveillance. The headquarters is located at Lubyanka Square in Moscow and the manager is Aleksandr Bortnikov.
SVR: External Intelligence Service. SVR is the foreign-oriented intelligence service that collects information on political targets, science and technology and participates in influence operations. Head is Sergey Naryshkin.
GRU: Military Intelligence Service. GRU is the oldest of the special services and operates both inside and outside the country. Many of the most high-profile Russian special operations have been carried out by the GRU, which is headed by Igor Kostyukov.
FSB, SVR and GRU have partially overlapping missions and cooperate with each other.
Source: Swedish Armed Forces, Royal United Services Institute (Russia), Foreign Policy Institute (UI)
Read moreFACTSBackground: Previous Russia scandals in Austria
In April 2022, less than two months after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer became the first EU leader to visit Putin in Moscow, drawing criticism from Western allies.
Austria’s former foreign minister Karin Kneissl was often accused during her time in office in 2017-2019 of doing Russia’s business. The criticism intensified when Putin himself appeared at her wedding in 2018 and danced the waltz with the bride.
Last year, Kneissl moved to St. Petersburg, after previously taking a board position in the Russian oil giant Rosneft. She also brought her ponies, which she had previously stabled in Syria.
Heinz-Christian Strache, former party leader of the right-wing populist FPÖ, has also received sharp criticism for Russia connections. In 2019, German media published a video in which Strache, or “the Red Bull brother from Austria” as he called himself, partied in Ibiza with a woman he thought was a relative of a Russian oligarch.
The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the possibility of offering lucrative public contracts in exchange for support for the FPÖ in the election campaign.
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