Russian-born defence force private and husband arrested
A Russian-born Brisbane couple face 15 years behind bars after they were charged with espionage offences for allegedly trying to pass information back to the Kremlin.
Police & Courts
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A Russian-born Brisbane couple have become the first in Australia to be charged with espionage offences after authorities allegedly caught the wife – a private in the Australian Defence Force – trying to pass information back to the Kremlin.
Igor and Kira Korolev, who lived in Everton Park, were arrested as part of a complex investigation involving the Australian Federal Police and ASIO and, if convicted, face a maximum penalty of 15 years behind bars.
The AFP have alleged Kira, a 40-year-old information systems technician with the ADF, secretly travelled to Russia while on long-term leave from the army and had told her labourer husband, 62, how to log on to her work account in order to access information.
He is then alleged to have passed that information to her while she was in Russia.
The married couple, who have been in Australia for more than 10 years, have been charged with one count each of preparing for an espionage offence.
They had been living in a unit complex in Everton Park, a 10-minute drive from the Gallipoli Barracks in Enoggera, after purchasing a two-bedroom apartment three years ago for $360,000.
AFP Commissioner Reece Kershaw said the counter foreign interference taskforce, which includes AFP, ASIO and other commonwealth partners, had investigated the couple’s activities.
Court documents accessed by The Courier-Mail allege the couple were operating as Russian spies from December 2022 to their arrests on Thursday.
“The AFP will allege the individuals worked together to access ADF material that related to Australia’s national security interests,” Mr Kershaw said. “We allege the woman was undertaking non-declared travel to Russia while she was on long-term leave from the ADF.
“We allege that while she was in Russia, she instructed her husband who remained in Australia, on how to log into 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.
“Whether that information (was) handed over remains a key focus of our investigation.”
Mr Kershaw said the couple’s alleged criminality had been disrupted.
“Currently no significant compromise has been identified,” he said.
“Our Five Eyes partners and the Australian government can be confident that the robust partnerships within the counter foreign interference taskforce means we will continue to identify and disrupt espionage and foreign interference activity.”
Five Eyes is an intelligence alliance comprising Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the UK and the US.
Kira received her Australian citizenship in 2016 and Igor in 2020. It is understood they previously lived in Western Australia and were both listed on WA Police’s list of registered security officers.
Igor, in a social media post, also talked about having lived in Melbourne and the regional river town of Wodonga where there is a military base.
Asked whether the information the woman allegedly accessed posed any risk to any ADF personnel, Mr Kershaw said “that does form part of the investigation”.
“At this stage currently, as I said, no significant compromise, however, we’re going to go down every avenue of inquiry,” he said.
Mr Kershaw said the taskforce would investigate if the woman joined the ADF with the specific intention of espionage.
He said the woman had allegedly been “misleading” about her travel and what country she was in.
He said the couple had Russian passports.
ASIO director-general Mike Burgess said the ADF’s “early awareness” of a potential security threat had allowed them to “intervene early and control the operation”.
Asked whether this meant authorities had fed “false information” to the couple, he said he could not go into detail.
“Obviously, you picked up on the key point, once we knew we were able to control this to allow the taskforce to do their investigation and the police to work through what they needed to do,” he said.
Mr Burgess said ASIO took the threat of espionage extremely seriously.
“If you are spying on this country, we are looking for you. If you are being spied on in this country, we are looking out for you,” he said.
“I acknowledge the work of the AFP and the counter foreign interference taskforce as well as the other ASIO teams that undertook a lengthy, patient and complex investigation. I also want to commend defence for its security awareness that led to ASIO and the task force to intervene early and control this operation. This case reflects and demonstrates an effective security culture, not a deficient one. I will make no further comment on this particular case because I appreciate the charges have not been tested in a court …
“The espionage threat is real. Multiple countries are seeking to steal Australia’s secrets. We cannot be naive and we cannot be complacent. Espionage is not some quaint cold war notion.”
The Australian Defence Force released a statement about the arrest.
“Defence takes all breaches of security seriously,” the statement said.
“In response to serious allegations, it is general practice to suspend an ADF member from service, including immediately cancelling the member’s access to Defence bases and ICT systems.
“Defence continues to work with the counter foreign interference taskforce.”
Kira did not appear in court in person. Igor was brought in wearing a green prison jumper and blue track pants. Neither applied for bail. Their matters were listed for September 20.
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