A Russian-born married couple, comprising a private in the Australian army and her labourer husband, have been arrested and charged with espionage for allegedly stealing sensitive Defence Force material for Kremlin intelligence.
Kira Korolev, 40, and her 62-year-old husband, Igor, who arrived in Australia together around ten years ago, appeared before a Brisbane magistrate on Friday. This marks the first use of new espionage charges introduced by the former government in 2018. Kira Korolev did not appear in court in person. Barrister Dylan Kerr, representing the commissioner of the Australian Federal Police, made an urgent application to suppress five names related to the case in the interest of national security.
Magistrate Ross Mack granted the suppression and adjourned the case to September 20. Korolev’s lawyer stated there was no application for bail for her client.
Footage of the couple’s arrest shows police leading them separately to and from dark 4WDs inside a car park, with their faces blurred.
Australian Security Intelligence Organisation director-general Mike Burgess stated at a press conference in Canberra on Friday morning that several countries were attempting to steal Australia’s secrets. “We cannot be naive and we cannot be complacent. Espionage is not some quaint Cold War notion. Espionage damages our economy and degrades our strategic advantage. It has catastrophic real-world consequences,” Burgess said.
Speaking alongside him, AFP Commissioner Reece Kershaw mentioned that the woman, who had been employed by the army for several years as an information systems technician, held a security clearance within the Defence Force. “We allege the woman was undertaking non-declared travel to Russia while she was on long-term leave from the Australian Defence Force,” he said.
“At this stage, there was some misleading on her part about where she was allegedly at and in which country. It was really through the work of the Counter Foreign Interference Taskforce that we were able to identify what had actually occurred.”
