A Russian spymaster claimed he helped topple former Austrian chancellor Sebastian Kurz, The Telegraph reported on Saturday.
Former Wirecard executive Jan Marsalek claimed to be involved in a Kremlin-associated operation to bring down the former chancellor.
Kurz stepped down in 2021 amid allegations of corruption, bribery, and breach of trust.
The Telegraph reported that Marsalek sent messages directly stating his role in ousting Kurz to his ringleader, Orlin Roussev, who is currently imprisoned in the UK.
If Marsalek’s allegations are true, it would indicate that the Kremlin is directly interfering in European political leadership.
Several countries assess Kremlin aims to destabilize European governments
The Telegraph report comes as multiple countries’ security agencies have assessed that the Kremlin is aiming to destabilize governments across Europe and sow chaos across the continent.
Marsalek disappeared five years ago after Wirecard collapsed in 2020, owing creditors almost $4 billion. He is now an international fugitive, and his whereabouts are unknown.
Since his disappearance, British authorities have revealed that he is a Russian spy directing espionage operations across Europe on an “industrial” scale.
He is being investigated for spying on behalf of Russia in Germany, Austria, and the UK.
When Marsalek’s ringleader Roussev was arrested in 2023, police found thousands of messages between him and Marsalek, who directed the unit of Bulgarian nationals from overseas.
The conversations between Marsalek and Roussev were key to "identifying how this group acted and were tasked," police commander Murphy said, and included references to Russia's GRU military intelligence and jokes about the nerve agent Novichok, used to target Russian double agent Sergei Skripal in Salisbury, England, in 2018.
UK authorities later shared these messages with other European police forces, primarily the Austrians, who are now investigating the extent to which their spies provided Marsalek with information.
The Telegraph reviewed an Austrian investigative file detailing messages Marsalek sent under the alias “Rupert Ticz” in 2021.
In the messages, Marsalek says a guy who was “actually working for us for a while” is now “the victim of a witch hunt by the team of the former chancellor.”
According to The Telegraph, Marsalek then says “we’ve successfully toppled” Kurz “by confiscating the mobile phone” of the person “who’s managing their secret campaign financing.”
He then shared a link to an article about Kurz’s corruption allegations and a phone that was seized by one of the former chancellor’s close advisers, Thomas Schmid.
Schmid’s phone was seized in 2019, and the messages on it became important evidence for corruption investigations.
Kurz stepped down in 2021 after investigations into his ÖVP party for misusing public funds to secure favorable media coverage.
Two weeks after Kurz stepped down, Marsalek wrote Roussev that the entire situation was “quite a messy story,” according to The Telegraph.
He referred to the phone again later in the conversation, noting that “the rest of the chats ‘killed’ the chancellor.”
The Telegraph noted that the files contain no independent evidence that Marsalek organized the seizure of the phone.
Former Austrian intelligence officers found guilty of spying for Russia
However, several former Austrian intelligence officers have been accused of handing him information intended to be passed on to Russia.
Notably, in May, a Jury in Vienna found former Austrian intelligence official Egisto Ott guilty of spying for Russia. He was found to have provided Marsalek and Russian intelligence officers with information.
He also was found to have helped Russia hunt down opponents and selling it state laptops and phones at Marsalek’s behest.
What is in the Austrian investigation?
The Telegraph noted that Austrian investigators wrote in an assessment that “Marsalek stated unequivocally that ‘they’ had ‘toppled’ the chancellor in a successful operation.
“Marsalek thus admitted to Roussev that he had been involved in the confiscation of this mobile phone,” investigators added.
Investigators interpreted the conversation between the two as Marsalek claiming involvement in the ex-chancellor’s downfall.
Notably, the messages between the two men were contained in police files investigating “support for a foreign intelligence service – interference in Austrian politics.”
While Kurz did not comment on the matter, sources close to him said he believed the allegations against him were politically motivated and that he was shocked to learn they could be related to Russia.
British prosecutors noted that at the time the messages were sent, Marsalek was living in Moscow and worked for the Russian Federal Security Service.
The messages detailed above were obtained from mobile devices seized in 2023 when British police arrested Roussev.
“It’s the worst-kept secret in Europe that a large portion of Russian diplomatic personnel in Vienna – one of Europe’s largest at over 500 personnel – are undercover operatives for Russian intelligence agencies including the SVR and GRU,” Yorktown Institute Fellow Robert Clark told The Telegraph.
“While Austria has expelled a number of Russian diplomats – most notably as recently as last month – Vienna remains a central node for Russian influence and operations. It’s of little wonder that Russian intelligence services would use that relatively safe environment to attempt to bring down heads of state,” he added, as per The Telegraph.
“What’s even more worrying now compared to, say, even 2021, and the pre-Ukraine war of Mr Kurz’s government, is Russia’s increasing willingness to use more belligerent means of espionage, coercion, and sabotage, to sow division within Europe, its governments, and its institutions, ultimately weakening the collective response mechanisms the continent relies upon to respond to Russian hostility.
“The Kremlin will likely only get more bellicose, than less, despite damning revelations such as these, he added, as per The Telegraph.
Moscow has regularly accused Western powers of trying to inflame anti-Russian hysteria.