Journalists at Agentstvo cross-referenced the RuPEP database of public figures with the current staff list published on the Austrian Foreign Ministry's website. They found signs of intelligence ties among eight of the 48 employees of the Russian embassy — three people may be linked to the Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) and three to the Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU), one to both structures, and one to the Federal Security Service (FSB). One more diplomat, who worked in Austria until recently, was an employee of the Interior Ministry.
At Russia's permanent mission to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), intelligence ties were found or suspected among seven of 22 employees. At missions to other international organizations in Vienna, including the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and UN agencies, the figure was five of 47. The count covered only officially published staff; administrative and technical employees were not included.
Some of the ties are confirmed by previous places of service, while others are based on registration addresses, data on relatives, and other indirect indicators. For example, embassy counselor Yevgeny Ambrosiy is registered in an SVR departmental building on Vilniuskaya Street in Moscow, while attaché Stanislav Aleksandridi listed the military intelligence headquarters on Khoroshevskoye Highway. Attaché Dmitry Kramarev worked in the 2000s at the Atlas Scientific and Technical Center, which was then under the FSB's purview.
Ambrosiy and first secretary Alexander Golovashkin have already appeared in The Insider's investigation into Russian intelligence activities in Austria. According to the outlet, Ambrosiy oversaw the SVR's Vienna residency, and Golovashkin served at the GRU's Moscow Intelligence Center before coming to Vienna. In March 2024, a source at the Russian Foreign Ministry told The Insider that both had been declared persona non grata, but in the Austrian Foreign Ministry's directory, updated in August 2026, they are still listed among embassy staff.
Vienna remains one of the most important centers of Russian intelligence activity in Europe. According to Austrian intelligence estimates, about 500 employees of Russian diplomatic missions are in the city, including personnel not on public lists, and up to a third of them may be engaged in espionage. In May 2026, Austria expelled three Russian diplomats, accusing them of intelligence activity. Since the start of the full-scale war, Austria has expelled a total of 14 employees of the Russian embassy, the broadcaster ORF reported.