Moscow "indignant"

These are the expelled Viennese Kremlin spies

(Bild: jgolby - stock.adobe.com)

After Austria declared two Russian diplomats to be undesirables for alleged espionage for the Kremlin at the beginning of the week (we reported), details have now been leaked. According to this, it is likely to be an officer of the GRU military intelligence service and a suspected representative of the SWR foreign intelligence service.

Specifically, the website "The Insider", which specializes in investigative journalism, named Yevgeny A., who has been accredited as Counsellor at the Russian Embassy in Vienna since 2020, and Aleksandr G., who has appeared in public lists as "First Embassy Secretary" since 2021. Neither the Russian embassy nor the Austrian Foreign Ministry wanted to confirm or deny this information to APA. "We ask for your understanding that we will not comment further on this," explained a ministry spokeswoman on Friday evening.

The espionage expert and author of the article, Sergei Kanev, attributed different relevance to the persons named: while G. only mentions that he had worked in the GRU's Moscow reconnaissance center before his posting to Austria, the medium A., an ex-resident of a secret service apartment building not far from the SWR headquarters in south-west Moscow, as one of the "first violins" on site: "A. is responsible for the SWR's resident office in Austria with regard to political reconnaissance - he deals in particular with local officials, members of parliament, representatives of society and journalists."

The GRU military intelligence service

GRU stands for "Glawnoje Raswedywatelnoje Uprawlenije", i.e. the "Main Administration for Reconnaissance". It is the leading central organ of the military intelligence service of the Russian military and deals with the procurement of all militarily relevant information and counterintelligence. The GRU is suspected of having carried out numerous state contract killings abroad.

Another "first violin" unmasked?
Other suspected intelligence officers at the Russian embassy in Vienna were also named: another "first violin" was Semyon K. from the GRU, who, according to a leaked address database, had been registered at the headquarters of this military intelligence service in the past. And Andrej P. had worked in a department of SWR in the past that dealt with disinformation on the internet.

The foreign intelligence service SWR

The abbreviation SWR stands for "Sluschba vneschnei raswedki", which means "Foreign Intelligence Service of the Russian Federation". The Russian foreign intelligence service covers the fields of politics, economics, science and technology. It is also known for conducting counter-intelligence, i.e. spying on other intelligence services. Its employees like to disguise themselves abroad as diplomats or journalists.

Unwanted persons
As became known on Wednesday, the Austrian Foreign Ministry declared two diplomats from the Russian embassy in Vienna undesirable persons at the beginning of the week and ordered them to leave Austria by March 19. They had taken actions that were incompatible with their diplomatic status, the Foreign Ministry explained. In this context, the Russian ambassador in Vienna, Dmitry Lyubinsky, was also summoned to the ministry on Monday.

Moscow threatens countermeasures
The Russian embassy subsequently expressed its "indignation" at Vienna's decision, and the Foreign Ministry in Moscow summoned the Austrian ambassador in Moscow, Werner Almhofer, on Thursday and announced countermeasures. It is conceivable that Moscow will also declare Austrians personae non gratae. According to the Vienna Foreign Ministry, there were 16 people with diplomatic status working at the Austrian embassy in Moscow, and 60 at the bilateral Russian embassy in Vienna and the Consulate General in Salzburg.