NewsSociety

Kronen Zeitung: son of Russian diplomat detained in Vienna on suspicion of espionage

The Austrian Directorate of State Security and Intelligence (DSN) has said to have detained a 39-year-old son of an ex-Russian diplomat with a Greek citizenship in Vienna, Austria’s newspapers Kronen Zeitung and Kurier report.

Kronen Zeitung clarified that the detainee’s name is Anatoly, his pseudonym being Alexandros.

Agents of the Cobra special forces unit of Austria’s Internal Affairs Ministry conducted an operation to detain the man. Before, on 24 March, his place in the suburbs of Vienna was searched. Kronen Zeitung reports that the suspect “is the son of an-ex employee of the Main Intelligence Directorate of Russia’s General Staff, who worked as a diplomat in Germany and Austria during his service”.

The Austrian secret service, together with “foreign partners”, is conducting an investigation and theorises that the man had undergone special military training in Russia as well as shared information with other diplomats and other spies from various countries.

Kurier adds that from 2018 to 2022 the suspect made 65 trips to Russia, Belarus, Turkey, and Georgia. It is noted that the man received only a few social benefit allowances in Austria, however, he managed to buy several real estate properties in Vienna, Russia, and Greece.

A short time before the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the man was in Moscow, Kurier reports.

In November, two citizens were arrested in Sweden on suspicion of espionage. According to Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet, the detainees are Russian immigrants. The married couple migrated to Sweden in the late 1990s. The outlet reports that the man could have been involved in espionage for the last 10 years, while the woman could have assisted him. The entire time, the two have been running a business selling industrial technologies in the country.

Russia’s Dossier Centre and Sweden’s Expressen say that the couple in question are Sergey Skvortsov, 59, and Yelena Kulkova, 58.

shareprint
Editor in chief — Kirill Martynov. Terms of use. Privacy policy.