Ex-colonel, found guilty of spying

The 71-year-old defendant, who was not named and whose trial in Salzburg was held inside closed doors on grounds of national security, was indicted to just three years in prison on Tuesday but was discharged for having served half of the time.

He was found guilty of charges including “betraying state secrets”, working for or helping a “foreign intelligence organization to the detriment of Austria” and “premeditate divulgation of a military secret”. He had been facing a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.

Prosecutors had accused the colonel of first coming into contact with the GRU in 1987 during a foreign assignment, and said he was paid hundreds of thousands of euros over time.

He had refused to hand over secret information, but admitted to clarifying open-source content “like a foreign correspondent,” according to Reuters, his lawyer said at the beginning of his trial in March.
Austrian police say the colonel has been recruited by Igor Zaitsev, a senior military intelligence analyst. Moscow, according to the Guardian, has denied his involvement in spying.
Austria is one of the only European countries to have established good diplomatic ties with Moscow in recent years.

Vienna, home to a number of international institutions, including the International Atomic Energy Agency, was renowned for its proximity to the Iron Curtain during the Cold War as a hot spot for intelligence operations.