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Is Austria’s capital Vienna really a ‘city of spies’?

A recent Financial Times article has alleged that Vienna is a hub for covert Russian activities, adding to the city’s reputation as a “city of spies”. How true is it?

Published: 29 March 2022 17:28 CEST
Is Austria’s capital Vienna really a 'city of spies'?
Is Austria's capital city really a hub for international espionage activity? Photo by Clive Kim on Pexels.

During the Cold War, Vienna was known as an international hotbed of espionage activity due to its neutral status and Central European location, leading to the nickname, “city of spies”.

Today, Austria’s capital city is once again in the spotlight after an article in the Financial Times named the Russian Embassy in Vienna as an important spy hub amid the fallout from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. 

The article includes interviews with eight serving European intelligence officials and diplomats, with one citing Austria as a “veritable aircraft carrier” of covert Russian activity.

READ MORE: Can Austria reduce its dependency on Russian gas?

Reports of espionage in Vienna

Recent concern about espionage in Vienna started in 2017 when a “friendly partner service” – reportedly British – warned Austria about an outflow of information from the BVT.

This was a time when the ministerial heads of all intelligence services were politicians from the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ), which was in a coalition with the Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP). Der Standard reports that the FPÖ signed a friendship treaty with United Russia, Vladimir Putin’s ruling political party.

READ ALSO: Calls for Russian-owned Austrian hotels to be opened to refugees

The following year, rumours began circling around Europe about Austria’s security services being compromised after a police raid on the BVT offices and the suspension of Austria’s anti-terror chief Peter Grindling.

Back in 2018, the BBC also reported on Vienna’s reputation as a “nest of spies” and included a quote from Siegfried Beer, historian and founder of the Austrian Center for Intelligence, Propaganda and Security Studies, who said espionage was still a business in the city.

‘City of spies’: What does Austria think about the moniker?

Austrian newspaper Der Standard wrote that Vienna’s location made it the perfect Russian espionage hub. 

According to the Financial Times, an Austrian chancellery official refused to comment on the allegations, but did say the “current government has been pushing through sweeping reform of its security agencies”.

Russia has used Vienna as a location from which to target other countries. Der Standard reports that although Austria has been aware of the extent of Russian espionage efforts, the focus has been only on activities targeted against Austria rather than other nations. 

The threat reached a head in 2017 when the right-wing Austrian Freedom Party (FPÖ) came into government, which had signed a friendship treaty with United Russia, Vladimir Putin’s party. 

The FPÖ took on leadership roles within all intelligence services, with Herbert Kickl becoming interior minister in 2017, and Mario Kunasek taking over the defence department.

The links between the two parties were so strong that Vladimir Putin attended the wedding of FPÖ foreign minister Karin Kneissl, where he danced with the bride and presented her with the now infamous sapphire earrings worth 50,000 euros. 

Kneissl, for her part, was later awarded a lucrative position on the board of Russian state-owned energy company Rosneft. 

A consequence of these close ties was that Austria’s Federal Agency for State Protection and Counterterrorism (BVT) was excluded from European intelligence sharing for a while because it was considered as deeply compromised.

An anonymous European diplomat added that Austria’s defence ministry is “practically a department of the GRU”. The GRU is the Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation.

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POLITICS

How Austria’s centre-left SPÖ party plans to change integration policy

Asylum, migration, and integration policies are a much-debated issue in Austria, particularly as the country heads to its national elections in the fall. What are the centre-left SPÖ plans?

Published: 24 June 2024 12:12 CEST
How Austria's centre-left SPÖ party plans to change integration policy

National elections in Austria will take place this fall, and one of the most debated issues – certainly one that has been driving voters for the past few years – is the refugee and asylum policy debates. 

While the far-right party FPÖ has gained popularity with extremist views such as closing off Austria entirely for asylum seekers, the centre-right ÖVP has also presented tougher stances. The chancellor’s party has publicly defended the creation of “asylum centres” for processing outside of the EU borders. Chancellor Karl Nehammer has also fully supported the UK’s plan to deport asylum seekers to “safe third countries”. 

A tougher stance on refugee policies has proved popular in Austria, and the centre-left SPÖ party has also seemed to lean toward stricter ideas more recently. However, since the party got a new leadership, a precise migration programme had not been presented yet. However, the issue was pressing, particularly following the party’s poor performance in the EU elections, when migration played a key role.

READ ALSO: How a change in the profile of asylum seekers is impacting Austria

So what are the party’s plans?

The SPÖ presented a new” masterplan” for asylum, migration, and integration. According to the SPÖ, the “Doskozil-Kaiser paper,” which has existed since 2018, has been “sharpened,” resulting in an “offensive paper” with approaches for action, said SPÖ leader Andreas Babler.

The aim was to “ensure balance and order” under “the premise of humanity”, said Babler at a press conference in Vienna.

The plan’s main points include faster procedures at the EU’s external borders, a fair distribution of refugees within the EU, and sanctions against countries that refuse to do so. With this, the SPÖ wants to reach a 75 percent reduction in the number of asylum applications. 

For example, the party leaders mentioned Hungary, where there were only 45 applications in 2023, compared to almost 60,000 in Austria. They said Hungary had to be persuaded to cooperate by exhausting all legal and political means.

The SPÖ proposes procedure centres along the EU’s external borders so that procedures can be completed more quickly and people do not hand themselves over to smugglers. The EU should set up “common centres for asylum applications”, for example, in embassies. 

People should only be distributed within the EU once the asylum applications have been assessed favourably. As a first step, cooperation between individual states could occur without the consent of all EU member states.

READ ALSO: When do Austrians think an immigrant is successfully integrated?

‘Integration year’ and deportation

The SPÖ plan contains an “extended mandatory integration year” that would ensure refugees get “German and values courses.” However, severe penalties, including deportation, would be imposed for serious offences or “repeated minor crimes.” 

Instead of mass accommodation, the SPÖ proposes small centres enabling better contact with the population. Women’s rights should also become a “central guiding principle for integration”. Women’s self-determination is the top priority, said SPÖ women’s spokesperson Eva-Maria Holzleitner.

The party reiterated that asylum is fundamentally a human right that should never be questioned. However, those who are denied their asylum request would be deported to their country of origin or safe third countries, the party advocates. 

READ ALSO: Who needs to take Austria’s integration exam?

Criticism from the right

Over the weekend, party representatives from far-right FPÖ and centre-right ÖVP have come out to criticise the SPÖ proposals. 

An FPÖ spokesperson said the plan is “pure PR policy” and that, in truth, the SPÖ had “always opened the door to illegal mass immigration under the guise of asylum”. The ÖVP said the proposals are just “headlines instead of concrete proposals for solutions”. 

In a press release, the party said that no capacity limit was presented, showing “that the SPÖ has still not realised that illegal migration cannot be countered by further squeezing the Austrian taxpayer”

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