The Australian Federal Police (AFP) has charged a Russian Australian man with foreign interference.
The 27-year-old was arrested yesterday in Sumner, in Brisbane’s west, but the AFP says he is a “Victorian resident”.
He has been charged with attempting to engage in intentional foreign interference and will appear in the Brisbane Magistrates Court today.
Police are expected to provide more details later today at a press conference in Canberra.
Alleged Russian spies charged with new offence
It is not the first time that police have accused Russia of orchestrating foreign interference in Australia.
Australia has been one of Ukraine’s most prominent supporters following Russia’s invasion and has funnelled about $1.8 billion to the country in military, economic and humanitarian support over the last four years.
That seems to have coincided with a campaign of Russian espionage in Australia.
In 2024, two Russian-born Australian citizens, married couple Kira and Igor Korolev, were arrested and accused of allegedly attempting to gather and send state secrets to Russia.
In June, the charges against them were upgraded to conspiracy to commit espionage.
ASIO director Mike Burgess said his agency had forced out a “hive of spies” from an unnamed country in 2022. They were said to be trying to covertly recruit Australians and steal sensitive information.
Multiple media outlets later reported that Russia was the country running that network, although ASIO has never publicly confirmed this.
Last month, the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) and nearly two dozen partner agencies issued a joint warning accusing Russian-linked hackers of targeting critical Australian industries, including defence, communications, energy and financial services.
In 2018, the Turnbull government announced it was expelling two Russian diplomats, who it said were undeclared intelligence operatives, as part of global action against Moscow over an alleged nerve agent attack on a former Russian spy living in the UK.
This year, authorities also charged three Chinese nationals with trying to gather intelligence on a Canberra Buddhist group for Chinese security agencies.