Espionage in Austria
Marsalek scandal shows Vienna’s worrying closeness to Russia
April 12, 2024, 9:34 a.m
Vienna has a long history, including as a spy hotspot. Agents frequented the area during the Cold War and the metropolis is still very popular with secret services today. At the center of the latest revelations is ex-Wirecard manager Marsalek – who also doesn’t make Austria’s state apparatus look good.
For Austria, it seems like a return to the Cold War era: Since the former Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution Egisto Ott was arrested at the end of March, disturbing connections from secret service circles to Russia have become known in the country. A few months before the parliamentary elections, the conservative-green federal government in Vienna is warning about the right-wing populist former ruling party FPÖ’s long-standing Russia-friendliness.
The suspected backer of the Kremlin’s activities in the country turned out to be a disgraced shooting star of the German digital economy: Jan Marsalek, who probably fled to Russia and was the former head of the failed payment service provider Wirecard. According to investigators, the arrested Egisto Ott is accused of “systematically” passing on information to Russia in exchange for payment.
Together with Ott, several secret service workers in Austria are said to have worked as double agents for Russia. Her backer and client was therefore Jan Marsalek. The former Wirecard boss, who fled Germany after a gigantic hole in the company’s balance sheet became known in June 2020, is now said to be living in Russia under a false identity.
There are still “moles” in security agencies
The espionage scandal that is shaking Austria is not just about coming to terms with the past. Viennese intelligence circles say there are still “moles” working in the security authorities. And this while Russia, ruled by Vladimir Putin, continues its war of aggression against Ukraine, which is only a few hundred kilometers from the Austrian eastern border, with unabated violence.
According to experts, Austria has huge weaknesses in dealing with foreign spies. On the one hand, there is the often inadequate training of our own secret service employees: While agents in other countries are trained at elite universities or special colleges, in Austria they “simply come from the police or army,” says Siegfried Beer, founder of the think tank ACIPSS, which specializes in secret services .
In contrast, according to Beer, there are around 7,000 foreign agents in the capital Vienna alone who are less interested in horse-drawn carriage rides and Sachertorte – but rather in the numerous international institutions such as the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the Petroleum Exporting Countries Organization OPEC, which have their offices in the Danube metropolis have a seat. The lax laws also make the work of spies in Austria comparatively easy: espionage is only prohibited in the EU member state if it is directed against Austria.
“Much too Putin-friendly for decades”
Anyone who represents Russian interests has also found a relatively friendly political climate in Vienna for years. Since the Cold War, Austria has viewed itself as a bridgehead between West and East – and was already a spy stronghold between the 1940s and 1980s. Looking at the recent past, intelligence expert Beer puts it this way: “We have been far too Putin-friendly for decades.”
The former ruling party FPÖ has particularly stood out for its proximity to the Russian president for years. The right-wing populists even concluded a friendship agreement with Putin’s United Russia party in 2016.
When the FPÖ became part of the center-right government under conservative Chancellor Sebastian Kurz of the Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP) after the 2017 National Council election, FPÖ right-winger Herbert Kickl became interior minister. A few weeks after Kickl’s appointment, in February 2018, the police searched the offices of the Austrian Office for the Protection of the Constitution – an operation that seriously damaged the reputation of the domestic secret service. As a result, several Western secret services restricted their cooperation with Austria – because they feared that shared information could reach Moscow via Vienna.
Former foreign minister now lives in Russia
From the years of the ÖVP-FPÖ government, many people also remember remarkable images of Foreign Minister Karin Kneissl: During her term in office, the non-party politician received Putin as a guest at her wedding, greeted him with a deep curtsy and danced the waltz with him. In September 2023, Kneissl and her ponies moved to Russia, where she has lived ever since. When asked today, the FPÖ pointed out that its friendship agreement with Putin’s party had been canceled for over a year.
The conservative Chancellor Karl Nehammer, who has governed in a coalition with the Greens since 2021, warned after the Egisto Ott double agent affair became known that Austria must prevent “Russian spy networks from threatening our country by infiltrating political parties or networks” – one Allusion to the FPÖ.
According to surveys, the right-wing populists still have a good chance of becoming the strongest force in the parliamentary elections due in the fall at the latest. The Green Justice Minister Alma Zadic calls for the “criminal law gaps” in dealing with espionage to be closed. It should no longer be possible for foreign secret services to spy in Austria with impunity.
However, Zadic won’t want to rule out one reason for Vienna’s popularity among foreign agents: the high quality of life in the city, which ensures that they feel at home on the Danube, as secret service expert Beer half-jokingly notes.
Some of the spies also spend their retirement here. Some of them have little of the Viennese air. In the past 15 years, a former Jordanian intelligence chief, a former Libyan oil minister and the Kazakh president’s former son-in-law were murdered in the city. The investigation led nowhere.