Irish citizen turned Kremlin spy Marina Sologub has been declared a risk to Australia’s national security

A Russian spy is a step closer to being deported after a secret tribunal hearing revealed she tried to make friends with submarine workers in Adelaide.

Accused Russian Spy Marina Sologub. Picture: Nine

A Russian spy is a step closer to being deported after it was revealed in a secret tribunal hearing that she tried to make friends with submarine workers in Adelaide while working in the space industry.

Irish citizen turned Kremlin spy Marina Sologub has been declared a risk to Australia’s national security amid ASIO claims she infiltrated the country’s space industry to spy.

Despite declaring her innocence 12 months ago to a television network, more details have emerged about her espionage as Sologub attempted to have ASIO’s assessment of her reviewed.

The assessment was issued last year, triggering the cancellation of her visa. She now awaits deportation in an immigration detention centre.

In a largely behind-closed doors session in the Appeals Administrative Tribunal last month, an ASIO officer told the hearing Sologub had access to information of interest to Russia and her claim that Russian officials showed no interest was “implausible”.

Marina Sologub, space consultant and Marion Council employee, has been deemed a national threat to security and had her visa cancelled.

Evidence to her hearing, in which Sologub was referred to under a pseudonym, showed she had been spying for Russia in Ireland years before moving to Australia in 2020.

An ASIO assessment officer told the tribunal that after Sologub arrived in Australia, a Russian official told her they were “interested in everything” and she relayed information about her work to Russian officials via WhatsApp.

ASIO said Sologub also had befriended an Adelaide submarine worker around the time the historic AUKUS defence deal was being announced. The tribunal heard she became friendly with the man after being introduced to him through her son.

ASIO’s assessment officer told the hearing, Sologub remained a security threat because she could still act as a “talent scout” for Russia – despite her cover being blown.

The agency told the tribunal she tried to minimise the truth of her Russian contacts by first telling ASIO that one was a close family friend; only to later say he was a work colleague.

“(Sologub) maintained the contact details of a Russian official and had ongoing contact with him since arriving in Australia,” the ASIO officer said.

“(Sologub) attempted to obfuscate that the contact had occurred and then downplayed its purpose once shown evidence from her phone of the contact.”

Sologub, who migrated from Kazakhstan to Ireland as a teenager, told a news network last year: “I was never a spy ... I know I’m innocent and I will prove it.”

The decision to uphold her security assessment labelling her a risk was upheld by the tribunal, moving her a step closer to being deported.

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