Married couple in Australia charged with spying for Russia
By Angus Thompson and Cloe Read
A Russian-born married couple, a private in the Australian army and her labourer husband, have been arrested and charged with espionage, accused of stealing sensitive Defence Force material for Kremlin intelligence.
Kira Korolev, 40, and her 62-year-old husband, Igor, who arrived in Australia together about 10 years ago, both faced a Brisbane magistrate on Friday in the first use of new espionage charges introduced by the former government in 2018.
Kira Korolev, who faced charges of espionage heard at Brisbane Magistrates Court on Friday July 12, 2024.
Kira Korolev did not appear in the court. Barrister Dylan Kerr, representing the commissioner of the Australian Federal Police, made an urgent application for the suppression of five names relating 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 told the court there was no application for bail for her client.
Vision of the couple’s arrests shows police leading the pair separately to and from dark 4WDs inside a car park, their faces blurred.
Australian Security Intelligence Organisation director-general Mike Burgess told a press conference in Canberra on Friday morning that several countries wanted 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 at AFP, Commissioner Reece Kershaw said the woman, who was 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, whilst she was on long-term leave from the Australian Defence Force,” he said.
“At this stage, there was some misleading on her behalf of where she was allegedly at and in what country. It was really [through] the work of the Counter Foreign Interference Taskforce that we were able to identify what had actually occurred.”
Brisbane labourer Igor Korolev.
According to Kershaw, Kira Korolev had been on leave from the Defence Force since 2023, and the AFP will allege she was in contact with her husband Igor in Australia and that she had instructed him how to log on to her official work account from their Brisbane home.
“We allege her husband would access requested material and would send [it] to his wife in Russia. We allege they sought that information with the intention of providing it to Russian authorities,” he said.
He said that whether the information was handed over “remains a key focus of our investigation”.
Kershaw said the Korolevs were arrested by the AFP at their home in Everton Park in Brisbane on Thursday morning and were charged later that day with one count each of preparing for an espionage offence, which carries a maximum 15-year jail sentence.
“The AFP will allege the individuals work together to access Australian Defence Force material that related to Australia’s national security interests,” he said.
Kershaw said no significant security compromise had been identified and that the criminal threat had been disrupted.
“Our Five Eyes partners and the Australian government can be confident that the robust partnerships within the Counter Foreign Interference Taskforce mean we will continue to identify and disrupt espionage and foreign interference activity,” Kershaw said.
Kira Korolev obtained her Australian citizenship in 2016. Igor obtained his in 2020. Asked how the risk was missed during the Defence Force’s vetting of the woman, Kershaw said this was being investigated. Burgess said vetting was not a solution in and of itself.
He said the taskforce had become aware of the alleged espionage via Defence, which then allowed the taskforce to intervene and “control the operation”.
Kershaw said he wouldn’t go into whether the pair’s alleged activities had anything to do with Ukraine. The besieged nation has just received $250 million in military aid from Australia to combat the Russian invasion.
Burgess and Kershaw said the agencies were investigating whether Kira Korolev had joined the Defence Force with the specific intention of committing espionage, if the couple had arrived in Australia on a specific mission, or if they had more recently been recruited by Russian intelligence.
Kershaw said the investigation so far had not identified any other individuals, “but as you know, often when we make an arrest that is the beginning of an investigation.”
Asked if the pair had been involved with or in contact with any Russian diplomats in Australia, Kershaw said: “That’s something we’ll be looking at as well.”
Burgess said it was 70 years since the 1954 Petrov defections, in which Soviet spies masqueraded as Russian diplomats who defected to Australia. Directing his message to Russian spies in Western countries, Burgess said: “If you want to share your secrets, please reach out.”
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