Austria has expelled three Russian embassy staff on suspicion of spying, determining that a "forest of antennae" on the diplomatic mission in Vienna was being used for illicit data collection. The expulsions bring the total number of Russian diplomats sent home by Austria to 14 since 2020.
"It is unacceptable that diplomatic immunity be used to commit espionage," Austrian Foreign Minister Beate Meinl-Reisinger said on Monday. She confirmed the three staff members had already left the country. "We have communicated this to the Russian side in no uncertain terms, including as regards the forest of antennae at the Russian mission," she added. Spying is a problem for Austria, she acknowledged, but the government has embarked on a "change of course" and is "taking consistent action."
The Russian embassy in Vienna described the decision as "outrageous," "unjustified," "politically motivated," and "categorically unacceptable," promising "harsh" retaliation.
According to a report by Austrian public broadcaster ORF, equipment installed on the roofs of the embassy and diplomatic compound has been systematically siphoning data from international and national organizations using satellite internet. Vienna hosts several major multilateral institutions, including the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, the International Atomic Energy Agency, and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe.
Austria has long been considered Europe's espionage capital since the Cold War. A loophole in the country's criminal code has effectively allowed spies to operate freely as long as their activities do not directly target Austrian interests. This has made Vienna an international espionage hub, with estimates suggesting that up to 7,000 of the city's 17,000 accredited diplomats may be secret agents. Many foreign embassies base their European undercover operations in the Austrian capital.
"The very limited legal options available to counter espionage lead to an extremely high incidence of foreign intelligence and secret services in the country," the now-former Austrian domestic intelligence agency BVT acknowledged in one of its annual reports.
Pressure for a crackdown has grown since the 2024 arrest of Egisto Ott, a former Austrian counter-espionage official. Ott, 63, went on trial in January accused of handing information to Russian intelligence officers in one of the country's biggest spy cases in decades. He allegedly helped Russia hunt down opponents of Vladimir Putin and sold government phones and secure laptops to Moscow at the behest of Jan Marsalek, the fugitive Austrian-born former chief operating officer of collapsed German payments firm Wirecard. Marsalek, believed to have fled to Moscow, is thought to have secretly worked for Russian military intelligence for a decade, running a ring of Bulgarians in London, three of whom were convicted by a UK court last year.
Prosecutors accuse Ott of making unauthorized searches in police and other databases to locate people Moscow was hunting, as well as handing over mobile phones and a laptop containing sensitive government and personal data to Russian intelligence. He has denied all charges.
Austria's three-party coalition government—comprising the conservative People's Party, the Social Democrats, and the liberal Neos—has reportedly drafted legislation that would make it illegal to spy against the EU and Vienna-based international organizations, expanding the list of activities characterized as espionage against Austria.
