A Russian spymaster and former Wirecard executive, Jan Marsalek, claimed he helped bring down former Austrian chancellor Sebastian Kurz, The Telegraph reported on Saturday.
Kurz resigned in 2021 while facing allegations of corruption, bribery and breach of trust, after investigators examined claims that his ÖVP party misused public funds to secure favorable media coverage. If Marsalek's claims are accurate, they would indicate direct Kremlin interference in European political leadership. The report comes as security agencies in multiple countries assess that the Kremlin is seeking to destabilize governments across Europe and sow chaos on the continent.
According to The Telegraph, Marsalek sent messages directly stating his role in the ouster to his ringleader, Orlin Roussev, who is currently imprisoned in the United Kingdom. When Roussev was arrested in 2023, police found thousands of messages between him and Marsalek, who directed a unit of Bulgarian nationals from overseas. Police commander Murphy said the conversations were key to "identifying how this group acted and were tasked." The exchanges referenced Russia's GRU military intelligence agency and joked about Novichok, the nerve agent used to target Russian double agent Sergei Skripal in Salisbury, England, in 2018. UK authorities later shared the messages with other European police forces, primarily the Austrians, who are now investigating the extent to which their own spies provided Marsalek with information.
Marsalek disappeared five years ago after Wirecard collapsed in 2020 owing creditors almost $4 billion. He is now an international fugitive whose whereabouts are unknown. British authorities have since revealed that he is a Russian spy directing espionage operations across Europe on an "industrial" scale, and he is being investigated for spying on behalf of Russia in Germany, Austria and the UK.
The Telegraph reviewed an Austrian investigative file detailing messages Marsalek sent under the alias "Rupert Ticz" in 2021. In them, he said a man who was "actually working for us for a while" had become "the victim of a witch hunt by the team of the former chancellor," then claimed "we've successfully toppled" Kurz "by confiscating the mobile phone" of the person "who's managing their secret campaign financing." He shared a link to an article about Kurz's corruption allegations and the phone seized from 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.
Two weeks after Kurz stepped down, Marsalek wrote to Roussev that the entire situation was "quite a messy story," according to The Telegraph, and later referred to the phone again, 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.
However, several former Austrian intelligence officers have been accused of handing Marsalek 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, to have helped Russia hunt down opponents, and to have sold it state laptops and phones at Marsalek's behest.
Austrian investigators wrote in an assessment that "Marsalek stated unequivocally that 'they' had 'toppled' the chancellor in a successful operation," adding that "Marsalek thus admitted to Roussev that he had been involved in the confiscation of this mobile phone." The messages between the two men were contained in police files investigating support for a foreign intelligence service and interference in Austrian politics. Kurz did not comment on the matter, but 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 working for the Russian Federal Security Service.
Robert Clark, a Yorktown Institute fellow, told The Telegraph it is "the worst-kept secret in Europe" that a large portion of Russian diplomatic personnel in Vienna, one of Europe's largest missions at over 500 personnel, are undercover operatives for Russian intelligence agencies including the SVR and GRU. While Austria has expelled a number of Russian diplomats, most notably as recently as last month, he said Vienna remains "a central node for Russian influence and operations" and warned that Russia is increasingly willing to use espionage, coercion and sabotage to sow division within Europe. Moscow has regularly accused Western powers of trying to inflame anti-Russian hysteria.
