Russian Spy Apprehended at Austria's Largest Energy Company

OMV Refinery [EPA Yonhap News File Photo. Redistribution and Database Prohibited]

 Counterintelligence authorities are investigating suspicions that internal secrets of OMV, Austria's largest energy company, were leaked to Russian intelligence agencies, Austrian weekly Profil reported on November 20 (local time).

The Austrian State Security and Intelligence Directorate (DSN) searched the home of an OMV employee and seized various internal documents. The employee, who worked at OMV for over 10 years and was in charge of overseas exploration and development, is suspected of cooperating with a Russian diplomat stationed in Austria. Profil reported that "piles of classified or sensitive documents were discovered."

OMV has dismissed the employee suspected of espionage. German media outlets reported that the employee is believed to be a naturalized Russian citizen.

The Austrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs recently summoned the Russian diplomat suspected of receiving OMV's internal information and demanded that they renounce their diplomatic immunity. Foreign media reported that this diplomat has been identified by various Western intelligence agencies as an operative of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB).

OMV is a semi-state-owned energy company in which the government holds a 31.5% stake and is Austria's largest company by revenue. In 1968, the company was the first in a non-communist European country to sign a natural gas import contract with the Soviet Union and has since served as a gateway for Russian energy to Western Europe. Until 2021, just before the war in Ukraine, Austria relied on Russia for approximately 80% of its natural gas imports.

Neutral Austria, while many European countries expelled hundreds of Russian diplomats following the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, only expelled a relatively small number, considering economic exchanges. Russian intelligence agencies have increased their espionage activities in Vienna, Austria, a traditional European hub, since the war began. Last year, a former employee of Austria's counterintelligence agency was apprehended for handing over the entire contents of the Police Chief's mobile phone to the Russian side. Yonhap News