Reporting for duty: Kremlin sends in new agents after Austria expels spies masquerading as journalists

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The shady apartment

At first glance, neither Olga Kukla nor Maksim Cherevik should raise any suspicions. Their biographies contain nothing that would suggest ties to the Russian security services. Yet even the most cursory background check would raise questions. For example: why did Olga Kukla, who had never had anything to do with journalism, suddenly decide to become a TASS correspondent in Vienna? She was born in Tyumen, graduated from the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO) with a degree in energy economics, interned as a student with Gazprom's exploration arm, Gazprom Geologorazvedka, and the Transneft research institute, completed a master’s program at the University of Leipzig, and went on to work at Novatek, Russia’s second-largest natural gas producer. There are no traces of Kukla ever having worked for TASS — or for any other journalistic outlet, whether Kremlin-controlled or independent.

Maksim Cherevik, who arrived in Vienna with Kukla this past August, also made an unusual turn in his career from the oil industry to journalism, though he made the switch somewhat earlier. Cherevik was born in Novosibirsk to the family of a nuclear engineer; his mother, Elena, is a businesswoman. In school, Maksim was an excellent student, took part in amateur theatrical performances, and practiced karate. After graduating, he entered MGIMO, studying at the Department of International Economic Relations while also learning German and public speaking.

After graduation, Cherevik interned at Rosneft before suddenly turning up as a TASS correspondent in Beijing. He filed only four reports from China before being recalled to Moscow, but he did manage to appear in an interview in which he said: “Some media constantly fabricate information about so-called human rights problems in China, but during my trip I became convinced this was untrue.” In 2024, ahead of the World Festival of Youth in Moscow, Cherevik — together with Stanislav Varivoda, head of the TASS press bureau in the Balkans — oversaw a propaganda project called “New Superheroes,” in which guests from Africa, Europe, the United States, and the Donetsk “People’s Republic” spoke about their visions for the future (the representative from the “DPR” was Vladimir Taranenko, who served as an authorized representative of Putin’s during the 2024 presidential campaign). Cherevik also composes music, and one of his pieces, titled “Persona non grata,” now risks proving prophetic in the very near future.

Like many other spies, Kukla and Cherevik blew their cover thanks to a fondness for pizza. According to food delivery records, they placed nine orders for pizza and drinks to an apartment in a Moscow high-rise at 22 Tarusskaya Street, Building 3. This complex, built in 2012, houses the headquarters of the SVR (Military Unit 28178) and is home to 220 families of foreign intelligence officers, including members of the SVR’s highly secret “Zaslon” (lit. “Backstop”) unit, which is attached to the Foreign Ministry and has connections with “cover journalists” from state media.

Military Unit 28178 handles multibillion-ruble procurements for the needs of foreign intelligence and is the founder of the SVR sanatorium Porechye near the Moscow Region town of Mozhaisk. The apartment on the 14th floor, where the deliveries went, is a safe house (a “cuckoo” in Russian intelligence slang).

“It’s a four-room apartment converted into a small classroom. It is under [the] operational control of the SVR. It has computers, training materials, a kitchen, and a lounge with a sofa. In the ‘cuckoo,’ agents are prepared for adaptation and given language training, whether they are illegals or officers who will later work under diplomatic cover in embassies and the like,” a source in the security services told The Insider.

Although the caller introduced himself as “Nikolai,” Cherevik’s phone number was also used to place orders with Delivery Club and IKEA to the address 21 Yasnogorskaya Street, Building 3, which contains official apartments issued by the SVR. In 2011, residents of the Yasenevo District protested against the construction of the high-rise, staging pickets, submitting appeals to the SVR and the mayor’s office, and even setting fire to a drilling rig, but without success.

According to phone billing records, before his assignment to Austria, the amateur composer was in direct contact with Svetlana Strelkovskaya, who had previously worked as an undercover agent in Germany under Aeroflot cover and later became an instructor at the SVR Academy (Military Unit 27147). At the academy, she is referred to as “our legend,” having taught generations of “illegals.” “No one knows Germany, Austria, and Switzerland — with their customs, folklore, and culture — better than Svetlana Petrovna,” the same intelligence source told The Insider. Call logs obtained by the newsroom confirmed that she was frequently in touch with officers from the SVR’s Directorate of Illegal Intelligence (Military Unit 33949), the traces of which soon disappeared.

Judging by the expected pace of publication, Cherevik is to file reports from Austria every 8 to 12 days. On Sept. 3, he sent his first piece to TASS, covering a visit by staff of the Russian House in Vienna to the Aspern cemetery, where 130 Soviet citizens are buried. On Sept. 15, TASS published a news report under Cherevik’s byline on the meeting in Vienna between IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi and Rosatom chief Alexey Likhachyov. On Sept. 27 he reported on a lecture at the Russian House by Alexey Konopatchenkov, a graduate of the Moscow Institute of Electronics and Mathematics and vice president of the International Committee of Mauthausen Concentration Camp Prisoners.

Both spy-correspondents ignored The Insider’s request for comment.

TASS as a KGB-SVR branch

Austria hosts dozens of headquarters of major international organizations (the IAEA, OPEC, the OSCE), and partly as a result, in Soviet times, the country was one of the key operational areas of the KGB’s First Chief Directorate. Back then, TASS “cover journalists” were not only engaged in espionage but also took part in “active measures,” planting disinformation in European media. For many years, the KGB residency in Vienna was headed by General Vyacheslav Kevorkov, who spied under the cover of a TASS special correspondent. At the same time, Kevorkov oversaw the Vienna bureau of Komsomolskaya Pravda, which opened in 1976 at Moscow’s request. Kevorkov became the prototype for KGB resident Vitaly Slavin in the television series TASS Is Authorized to Declare. After the collapse of the USSR, Kevorkov was not recalled to Moscow; instead, he continued spying in Austria and later moved to Germany, where he lived until his death in 2017.

In the present day, almost nothing has changed. TASS is still engaged in espionage while remaining one of the Kremlin’s main propaganda outlets. The agency frequently spreads disinformation invented by Sergey Guskov, head of the SVR press bureau, who began his career in the KGB’s political intelligence directorate. For example, in July of this year, citing the SVR, TASS published a story claiming that representatives of the United States and the United Kingdom had organized a secret meeting in an Alpine resort to discuss replacing Ukrainian president Zelensky. In August, again citing the SVR, TASS reported that German chancellor Friedrich Merz was supposedly obsessed with avenging Nazi Germany’s defeat to the Soviet Union in the Second World War, alleging that “the thirst for revenge grew in him since childhood.” The Insider has debunked that claim in detail.

“TASS employs staff who joined back in the days of General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev. Later, they praised the wise policies of Andropov, Chernenko, and Gorbachev, and under Yeltsin even repainted themselves as democrats. Almost every year president Putin decorates TASS employees with orders and medals. Last year, 34 people received such awards. It was curious to watch some of the decorated journalists snap to attention like soldiers,” one attendee of the ceremony recalled.

Judging by the available evidence, the handler of the TASS journalists who were expelled last year (Ivan Popov and Arina Davidyan), was Andrey Prosvirnikov, first secretary of the Russian Embassy in Austria and an operative in Vienna since 2016. Prosvirnikov previously served in Military Unit 54939, which was disbanded in 2015. That unit specialized in spreading disinformation and monitoring social networks, and its office was located in Moscow in the so-called SVR Residents’ House on Goncharnaya Street, which The Insider has previously described. After the expulsion of the journalists, Prosvirnikov’s name disappeared from the list of the embassy’s diplomats. On Aug. 18, 2025, Russian ambassador to Vienna Dmitry Lyubinsky was recalled to Moscow and, by decree of Putin, appointed deputy foreign minister.

Then, two weeks ago, another high-profile spy scandal erupted in Austria: local counterintelligence officials arrested an unnamed senior employee of the energy company OMV. The security services had kept him under surveillance for several months and noticed that he often met with a diplomat from the Russian embassy. A search of the suspect’s home uncovered numerous confidential OMV documents. Austrian authorities are demanding that Russia lift the immunity of the diplomat in question (under the Vienna Convention, this would mean he is automatically declared persona non grata).

The shady apartment never stays empty

The “cuckoo” safe house on Tarusskaya Street, from which Kukla and Cherevik placed their orders, did not remain vacant for long after their departure. It is now occupied by a certain Alexei Yashin, who previously listed his residence as the Belye Nochi housing complex (located near SVR headquarters). Since the age of 17, Yashin has taken part in the annual ski marathon in Kirzhach, held in memory of fallen officers of the FSB Special Operations Center. During his military service, Yashin excelled in combat training and commanded a unit.

Yashin now serves in the SVR’s “Zaslon” special unit, which provides protection for high-ranking officials, generals, and top managers of major state companies on visits to “problematic” countries. For example, in September 2020, Yashin escorted a large group of Gazpromneft and Novatek employees to Baghdad, and in August 2022 he guarded a secret shipment that was sent from Damascus. Five other Zaslon operatives On board the Syrian Airlines flight, along with a senior officer from the SVR Directorate of Illegal Intelligence.