Four Russian diplomats who worked in Austria have been declared personae non gratae and ordered to leave the country, the local outlets Profil and Heute report.
The diplomats, whose names have not been disclosed, are suspected of espionage.
Three of them are known to have worked at the Russian embassy in Vienna, and the fourth worked at Russia’s mission to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in the Austrian capital.
Profil cites data from the RuPEP database of public figures, which the independent outlet Agentstvo analyzed this past August to determine that at least 20 of the 117 officially listed employees of Russian diplomatic missions in Austria had ties to Moscow’s intelligence services — the Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), the Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU), and the Federal Security Service (FSB). Of the 22 employees of the Russian mission to the OSCE, seven were found to have likely ties to Moscow’s intelligence services.
The Austrian newspaper notes that the competent authorities have since been studying the list in detail, but they needed more specific and legally significant information to justify expulsion, delaying the process.
Vienna remains one of the most important centers of Russian intelligence activity in Europe. In May 2026, Austria expelled three Russian diplomats, accusing them of gathering intelligence. The authorities did not disclose their names in that case either.
