{"id":76973,"date":"2026-08-21T02:27:06","date_gmt":"2026-08-21T02:27:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/76973\/"},"modified":"2026-08-21T02:27:06","modified_gmt":"2026-08-21T02:27:06","slug":"27yo-russian-australian-citizen-arrested-by-spy-task-force-in-queensland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/76973\/","title":{"rendered":"27yo Russian-Australian citizen arrested by spy task force in Queensland"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A 27-year-old man with dual Russian-Australian citizenship will front court on Friday after being charged with intentional foreign interference.<\/p>\n<p>Counter-intelligence watchers arrested the Victorian resident in southwest Brisbane on Thursday following a Counter Foreign Interference Task Force investigation, the Australian Federal Police said.<\/p>\n<p>The task force, jointly led by the AFP and the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, investigates serious threats to Australia\u2019s national interests.<\/p>\n<p>The man is scheduled to appear at Brisbane Magistrates Court, with AFP Commissioner Krissy Barrett set to front a press conference on Friday afternoon.<\/p>\n<p>Canberra\u2019s staunch bipartisan backing for Ukraine\u2019s fight against invading Russian forces has earned Australia a spot on the Kremlin\u2019s list of \u201cunfriendly countries and territories\u201d. <\/p>\n<p>That listing has coincided with intensifying Russian espionage and disruption efforts in Australia in recent years.<\/p>\n<p>In 2023, Australia expelled a \u201cmajor spy network\u201d comprised of Russian diplomatic staff operating in the country under deep-cover.<\/p>\n<p>Agents recruited locally to build \u201ca wider network\u201d, ASIO chief Mike Burgess said at the time.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAmong other malicious activities, they wanted to steal sensitive information,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>In another high-profile case, two Russian-born Australian citizens, Kira Korolev and her husband, Igor, were initially charged with preparing for an espionage offence in 2024.<\/p>\n<p>Authorities accused Ms Korolev, an Australian Defence Force information systems technician of exploiting her security access to funnel military secrets to Moscow.<\/p>\n<p>The charges against were upgraded in June of this year to conspiracy to commit espionage, which could see them jailed for life.<\/p>\n<p>The national cyber intelligence agency last month warned hackers linked to the Russia\u2019s Federal Security Service were targeting critical Australian industries, including defence, communications, energy and financial services.<\/p>\n<p>More to come<\/p>\n<p>Read related topics:<a class=\"topic_tag\" href=\"https:\/\/www.news.com.au\/topics\/brisbane\" data-tgev-container=\"story-topic-links\" data-tgev-label=\"Brisbane\" data-tgev-order=\"1\" data-tgev-metric=\"npv\" data-tgev=\"event10\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Brisbane<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A 27-year-old man with dual Russian-Australian citizenship will front court on Friday after being charged with intentional foreign&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":76974,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[114722,114710,73192,114736,114734,38039,114748,114713,114717,114743,51650,114733,114738,41552,42435,114752,114746,114740,114716,114750,114730,22,23,21,1958,52660,31653,114732,1109,114739,114726,5735,114718,1625,31493,114719,20022,9715,114749,81273,37730,114741,10586,114729,36788,10585,36872,114745,114709,114711,114727,2054,114728,212,114742,114747,114720,114744,114731,13790,85310,114735,114723,114751,114715,114724,38579,38491,56588,37024,114737,114725,36556,114712,39096,7444,114721,240,114714],"class_list":["post-76973","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-s-federal-security-service","tag-s-fight","tag-s-list","tag-s-national-interests-the-man","tag-s-staunch-bipartisan-backing","tag-38039","tag-2024-authorities","tag-27yo-russian-australian","tag-27yo-russian-australian-citizen","tag-a-major-spy-network","tag-a-27-year-old-man","tag-a-counter-foreign-interference-task-force-investigation","tag-a-dual-russian-australian-national","tag-a-press-conference","tag-a-spot","tag-a-wider-network","tag-afp-commissioner-krissy-barrett","tag-an-australian-defence-force-information-systems-technician","tag-an-espionage-offence","tag-another-high-profile-case","tag-asio-chief-mike-burgess","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-austrlia","tag-brisbane-magistrates-court","tag-communications","tag-conspiracy","tag-counter-intelligence-watchers","tag-court","tag-critical-australian-industries","tag-deep-cover-agents","tag-defence","tag-dual-russian-australian-citizenship","tag-energy","tag-espionage","tag-financial-services-more","tag-foreign-interference","tag-friday","tag-friday-afternoon-canberra","tag-hackers","tag-her-husband","tag-her-security-access","tag-igor","tag-intentional-foreign-interference","tag-june","tag-kira-korolev","tag-last-month","tag-life-the-national-cyber-intelligence-agency","tag-military-secrets","tag-moscow-the-charges","tag-ms-korolev","tag-newswire-politics","tag-other-malicious-activities","tag-queensland","tag-recent-years-in","tag-russian-diplomatic-staff","tag-russian-espionage-and-disruption-efforts","tag-russian-forces","tag-russian-australian","tag-sensitive-information","tag-serious-threats","tag-southwest-brisbane","tag-spy-catchers","tag-spy-task-force","tag-task-force","tag-that-listing","tag-the-afp","tag-the-australian-federal-police","tag-the-australian-security-intelligence-organisation","tag-the-country","tag-the-kremlin","tag-the-russia","tag-the-time","tag-the-victorian-resident","tag-this-year","tag-thursday","tag-two-russian-born-australian-citizens","tag-ukraine","tag-unfriendly-countries-and-territories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76973","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76973"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76973\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76974"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76973"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76973"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76973"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}