In the undergrounds of Vienna, one regularly crosses film buffs and spy enthusiasts, relates The standard. “But unlike the heroes of the third man – a classic of the genre, released in 1949, in which spies engage in a chase through the labyrinth of the Viennese underground, on a famous zither theme composed by Anton Karas –, today’s intelligence agents do not no longer need to hide to accomplish their sinister mission on the banks of the Danube.” Austria, the Austrian title explains, is still a spy’s paradise.
In a long investigation, The Washington Post became interested in one of them, Egisto Ott, qualified by The press d’“Austria’s most famous secret agent”. “Egisto Ott, 60, has become the symbol of Russian infiltration into Austrian politics, industry and intelligence – and therefore, into the European Union,” explains the Washington newspaper. He has moreover “contributed to the loosening of ties between the Austrian intelligence services and some of their foreign counterparts, and to the exclusion of Vienna from certain information-sharing agreements in several areas related to Russia”.
From Vienna, The press approved. “The list of crimes with which he is charged is long: espionage on behalf of Russia, corruption and betrayal of professional secrecy.”
This former Austrian intelligence officer is notably suspected of having transmitted information, from 2017 to 2021, to Jan Marsalek, a businessman wanted in Germany in connection with the Wirecard financial scandal and suspected of being linked to the services Russian secrets. These data concerned, among other things, personalities