Embassy in Austria Embassy ● Roster captured ● host list

The Insider reported on August 10th that “at least 20 of the 117 employees of Russian diplomatic missions in Austria are likely tied to the SVR, GRU, or FSB, according to a report by the independent Russian outlet Agentstvo, which made use of information from the RuPEP public figures database and the foreign diplomatic staff list published by Austria’s Foreign Ministry. The count covers only the officially published staff of the Russian Embassy and Russian missions to international organizations. Administrative and technical staff were not included. Some of the identified links are confirmed by previous places of service or employment, while others are based on registered addresses, information about relatives, and other indirect indicators. Of the 48 employees of the Russian Embassy, at least eight showed signs of links to intelligence agencies. Counselor Evgenii Ambrosii is registered at an SVR departmental building on Vilniusskaya Street in Moscow. Attaché Aleksandr Sobolev received income from military unit 21247, which corresponds to the Foreign Intelligence Academy. Alexander Paloyan received income from SVR military unit 33949. First Secretary Alexander Golovashkin, military attaché Alexey Fokin, and attaché Stanislav Aleksandridi are linked to GRU addresses and units (Aleksandridi listed the military intelligence headquarters on Khoroshevskoye Highway in Moscow, while Fokin was registered on the grounds of the Senezh Special Purpose Center). Attaché Dmitrii Kramarev worked in the 2000s at the Atlas Scientific and Technical Center, which at the time was under the FSB. Ambrosii and Golovashkin had already appeared in The Insider’s previous investigation into Russian intelligence activity in Austria. Ambrosii supervised the SVR’s Vienna station on the political intelligence track, while Golovashkin served at the GRU’s Moscow Intelligence Center before arriving in Vienna. In March 2024, a source in Austria’s Foreign Ministry told The Insider that both had been added to the list of personae non gratae. The Insider found that they still appear among embassy staff in the Austrian Foreign Ministry directory updated in August 2026. Of the 22 employees of Russia’s mission to the OSCE, links to intelligence agencies are suspected in seven cases. Four figures — Counselors Anton Momatyuk and Vitaly Kozlov, First Secretary Sergei Kildyashov, and Second Secretary Alexei Silantyev — used addresses of facilities linked to the GRU and military education. Three other employees previously worked at Defense Ministry institutions or listed addresses belonging to the General Staff, military academies, and military units. Among 47 employees of Russian missions to other international organizations, signs of links to intelligence agencies were found in five cases. Three of them work at the IAEA. In particular, Sergei Berezin was registered on the grounds of the GRU’s Central Special Communications Hub, while Grigory Krivenchenko received income from military unit 52025, a nuclear weapons arsenal in Mozhaysk. Two other diplomats with possible links to military intelligence represent Russia at U.N. institutions.”

The Parliament Magazine reported on July 2nd that “for decades, the city’s reputation as the capital of spies — eavesdropping on wiretapped calls, swapping secrets in crowded cafés and mingling with diplomats over canapés — has been as much a part of its identity as Wiener schnitzel and Sachertorte. Many Austrians accepted it as the price of hosting major international organizations like the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe and the International Atomic Energy Agency , alongside more than 120 foreign missions. Others saw it as an inevitable consequence of Austria’s long-standing policy of neutrality. Then Russia pushed too far. Over the past few years, the Russian Embassy on Reisnerstrasse sprouted such a thicket of antennae that locals dubbed it the “forest.” And with that, looking the other way was no longer an option. In response, the government announced it would tighten its espionage laws, making life harder for the estimated 7,000 spies believed to roam the city. Under current legislation, foreign agents can generally operate with impunity unless they are caught spying on Austria itself — a loophole experts say has helped cement Vienna’s status as the world’s premier playground for foreign spies. “It needs to close the loophole,” said former CIA officer Bjorn Beam, now head of geopolitics and technology consulting at Arcano and adjunct professor at IE University. The government now appears determined to do just that.”

Interfax reported on September 30th that “a Russian diplomat, who fell under suspicion of espionage in OMV, an Austrian oil and gas company, has been declared persona non grata in Austria, the ORF broadcaster reported on Tuesday. “He already left the country,” a spokesperson for the Austrian Foreign Ministry was quoted by ORF as saying. Earlier, the Russian Embassy to Austria refused to revoke immunity from its employee so the authorities could investigate him. In September, Austrian media reported that the diplomat in question had repeatedly met with a former employee of OMV, Central Europe’s biggest oil and gas company headquartered in Vienna. The ex-employee was searched and found in possession of a large quantity of OMV’s internal documentation.”

On March 24th Business Day reported that “Austria’s DSN domestic intelligence agency said on Monday it had uncovered an extensive Russian disinformation campaign centred on a Bulgarian national accused of spying and disseminating false information about Ukraine. The DSN, part of the Austrian interior ministry, said the woman — whom it did not name — had acknowledged working on behalf of Russia, especially in 2022 when Moscow launched its full-blown invasion of Ukraine, to turn public opinion in favour of Russia and against Kyiv. A spokesperson for the Vienna prosecutor’s office said that despite its request to place the woman in custody, a regional court had released her. The DSN did not immediately respond to a request for comment on her whereabouts or the status of its investigation. The Russian Embassy in Vienna did not immediately reply to an emailed request for comment. In a search of the woman’s home in an undisclosed location in Austria, the DSN said its investigators had found evidence of a group working for Russian secret services since shortly after the invasion of Ukraine. It said the group executed an extensive disinformation campaign for German-speaking countries with a focus on Austria. The campaign, it said, included “activities in the media landscape” and offline activity that included graffiti and stickers. “The spread of false narratives, fake news and manipulative content undermines trust in our institutions and jeopardises social cohesion,” said senior Austrian interior ministry official Joerg Leichtfried.”

Following this week’s story #62, on March 16th Kronen Zeitung reported that “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.” 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.”

Politico reported on February 2nd that “Austria has revoked the diplomatic status of four Russian civil servants working in Vienna, the Austrian foreign ministry said in a press release Thursday. The four Russian diplomats “have engaged in acts incompatible with their diplomatic status” and “must leave the territory of the Republic of Austria within one week at the latest, i.e. by the end of 8 February,” the statement reads. Two of the diplomats worked at the Russian embassy in Vienna and the other two were from the permanent mission to the United Nations. The Austrian capital became a spy nest during the Cold War — largely thanks to its proximity to the Iron Curtain — and is still considered a hotspot for international espionage. European security services have cracked down on alleged Russian spies since the Kremlin invaded Ukraine last February.”

Following the rest of the European countries, Austria announced that 4 Russian diplomats from the Russian Embassy of Salzburg will have to leave the country by April 12th. The spokesman didn’t provide justification apart from acting “incompatible with their diplomatic status” but open source reports claim it was related to espionage activity.