65 trips, but hardly any income: Austria exposes alleged Putin spy
Created: 2022-12-21 04:51
By: Markus Hofstetter
In Austria, a 39-year-old is suspected of being a spy for the Russian secret service.
He is even said to have received special military training.
Vienna - Russia by no means stopped its espionage activities after the end of the Cold War.
According to German security authorities, around 200 operating spies from Russia are known, but experts assume a significantly higher number.
In Great Britain, Vladimir Putin is said to maintain a spy network with at least 1,000 agents.
There now seems to be a new case in Austria.
According to their own statements, investigators have unmasked a Greek as a suspected spy.
The 39-year-old is said to work for the Russian military intelligence service GRU.
The man of Russian descent is suspected of having provided information on political and social discourses in Austria in connection with the Ukraine war, the Interior Ministry in Vienna announced on Monday.
Vladimir Putin, pictured here at a meeting with officers of the Russian military intelligence service GRU, maintains a widespread network of agents in the West.
(Archive photo from 2018) © Alexei Druzhinin/dpa/picture alliance
Russian spy exposed in Vienna?
The suspect is said to have received special military training
The suspect, who is said to have received special military training in Russia, has been in contact with diplomats and various intelligence services and was in Moscow shortly before and during the military invasion of Ukraine by Russian forces, the ministry said.
His job may have been to provide information to assess foreign reactions to the invasion, it said.
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Among other things, a signal detector for detecting listening devices and hidden cameras as well as a splinter protection suit were found on the suspect, who is currently at large.
According to the information, mobile phones and computers with ten million files were also secured.
Suspicious made alleged agent through his many trips.
From 2018 to early 2022, he made a total of 65 trips to other European countries as well as to Russia, Belarus, Turkey and Georgia, according to the ministry.
In addition, he has acquired several properties in Vienna, Russia and Greece, although his official income is low.
The investigations by the Directorate for State Security and Intelligence were conducted on behalf of the Vienna Public Prosecutor's Office and in close international cooperation.
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Espionage activities by the Kremlin are repeatedly uncovered.
These include the quirky case of Anna Chapman, who has been dubbed “Moscow’s Mata Hari.”
She was arrested by the FBI along with nine other agents in June 2010 in the United States.
On European soil, there are, among other things, the Skripal case or the Berlin Tiergarten murder.
