Vienna, a hotbed of spies in the course of the Chilly Conflict, is as soon as once more the scene of an intrigue typical of a John le Carré novel exposes Russia's deep infiltration of the Austrian safety forcesa member state of the EU, and within the far-right occasion that’s main the polls.
This plot, involving a former Austrian counterintelligence agent, a key investigative journalist, a community of Russian brokers and a fugitive Austrian orchestrating operations for the Kremlin from Russia, reveals the aggressive Russian actions within the coronary heart of Europe.
The primary character is Egisto Ott, a former agent of the Austrian counterintelligence company BVT, who was arrested on the finish of March and accused of supplying categorized info to Russia, and Jan Marsalek, a fellow refugee in that nation.
Ott collected for years Details about refugees from the Russian regime in Europetogether with former workers of the Russian secret service FSB with new identities in addition to politicians and journalists.
Though he was suspended from BVT in 2017, the previous agent continued to realize entry to delicate details about the actions of individuals Moscow wished to find.
A fugitive for fraud
The second determine is Marsalek, former quantity two of the bankrupt on-line fee system Wirecard and, since a fraud value 1.9 billion euros was found in mid-2020, one of the crucial wished fugitives.
His traces have been misplaced in June 2020 when he traveled from Vienna to Belarus on a non-public airplane.
Now he isn’t solely accused of the big Wirecard fraud, Marsalek is accused of spying for Russiabecause the German weekly revealed The mirror and confirms the investigations in Austria.
One of many major targets of the conspiracy was Christo Grozev, a Bulgarian investigative journalist who lived in Vienna till 2023 and was a headache for the Kremlin.
An inconvenient journalist
His work on the Bellingcat analysis platform was essential in figuring out the Russians liable for taking pictures down the MH17 passenger airplane over japanese Ukraine in 2014, killing 298 individuals.
Grozev additionally recognized the brokers who poisoned Russian opponents Sergei Skipal and Alexei Navalny.
Ott disclosed Grozev's handle in Vienna and handed details about his safety to Russian brokers, who broke into the journalist's house in June 2022 and stole his laptop computer and a USB drive.
As well as, copies of the cellular phone reminiscences of three high-ranking Austrian inside officers, which had been stolen by a few of Ott's accomplices, have been despatched to Moscow.
As well as, Ott Marsalek helped procure a SINA system. one of many cryptographic machines most superior within the West, which, in keeping with the Austrian press, ended up in Russia or Iran.
The arrest of the spies concerned within the Grozev theft in the UK and the knowledge transmitted to Austria by the British secret service MI5 led to Ott's arrest in March.
Ott's superior at BVT, Martin Weiss, who fled to Dubai, can also be being investigated as a result of he’s suspected of being the actual interlocutor of Marsalek, who was caught by Russian espionage in 2014.
Grozev, for his half, He left Vienna in 2023 and made his solution to the USA. when he was knowledgeable that Austria might not assure his security and when suspicions arose that Russia wished to homicide him.
The complicated conspiracy, new particulars of which emerge virtually each day, has shaken Austrian politics and the preliminary response of the federal government, led by the conservative Individuals's Celebration, was the announcement of a tightening of espionage legal guidelines.
Present Austrian laws solely punishes espionage towards nationwide establishments, however not towards worldwide organizations or different overseas pursuits in Austria, the headquarters of round thirty organizations such because the UN or the OSCE.
This hole made Vienna a perfect location for espionage after the tip of the Chilly Conflictas a result of the extent of impunity is big.
An extremely supervisor
One other side is the function of the right-wing extremist occasion FPÖ, which managed the Inside Ministry between 2017 and 2019 and in 2018 signed a cooperation settlement with Russia enhance the alternate of safety info.
The FPÖ, which doesn’t cover its admiration for Russia, is main the voting intentions for the federal election in September and is led by then Inside Minister Herbert Kickl.
Certainly one of Kickl's most controversial measures was the reform, Some analysts communicate of a “dismantling”, in keeping with the BVTwho was additionally liable for monitoring right-wing extremists in Austria.
One of many controversial pictures of the federal government on the time by conservatives and right-wing extremists was International Minister Karin Kneissl dancing with Vladimir Putin at her wedding ceremony.
Based on the Vienna weekly newspaper butterflyThe top of Austrian diplomacy, who was appointed by the FPÖ on the time and now lives in Russia, tried, with the assistance of Ott, to arrange her personal secret service in her ministry.