Austria will expel four Russian diplomats suspected of spying. Three worked at the Russian Embassy in Vienna and the fourth at Russia’s mission to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).
Austria’s Foreign Ministry said the diplomats “have engaged in activities incompatible with their diplomatic status” and had therefore been declared personae non gratae.
Austrian authorities have long known about all four diplomats and have kept them on internal lists of suspects for some time, Profil magazine reported. An inquiry began in mid-August after the news outlet Proekt reported on ties between Russian diplomats in Europe and three Russian intelligence agencies: military intelligence (the GRU), the Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), and the Federal Security Service (FSB).
Austria previously expelled three Russian Embassy employees in May on suspicion of maintaining spying equipment. Profil reported that satellite dishes Russia could use to intercept communications traffic had been found on the embassy’s roof.
From Meduza’s archives
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- What is the GRU? Who gets recruited to be a spy? Why are they exposed so often? Here are the most important things you should know about Russia’s intelligence community
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