Austria has a launched a probe into an army colonel suspected of spying for Russia for several decades, Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said on Friday, the latest in a string of cases where Moscow has been accused of espionage in EU states. Kurz told a Press conference that the colonel, now retired, is suspected to have begun working with Russian intelligence in the 1990s and carried on until 2018.
Foreign Minister Karin Kneissl has summoned the Russian charge d’affaires over the matter and cancelled an upcoming trip to Russia. Russia’s Foreign Ministry meanwhile said it was calling in the Austrian ambassador to discuss the issue.
“Of course if such cases are confirmed, whether it be in the Netherlands or in Austria, it can’t improve the relationship between the EU and Russia,” Kurz told reporters in Vienna.