Suspected Russian spy Marina Sologub will fight deportation from Australia

An Irishwoman detained in Australia on suspicions she was a Russian spy will appeal against the federal government’s decision to revoke her visa and deport her.

Marina Sologub.

An Irishwoman detained in Australia on suspicions she was a Russian spy will appeal against the federal government’s decision to revoke her visa and deport her.

Marina Sologub, a Kazakhstan-born Irish citizen, is in immigration detention in Melbourne pending an appeal to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal listed for July.

She was detained following a raid at her Adelaide home in February by ASIO, Border Force and the Australian Federal Police.

The 39-year-old woman has been in Australia since 2020 working on a fast-tracked 858 distinguished talent visa granted by the South Australian government because of her experience in the space industry.

She has been most recently working as a procurement advisor with the City of Marion local council in Adelaide.

The Australian Space Agency is based in Adelaide and the city is the hub of Australian space ­research and development.

Ms Sologub’s visa was cancelled following advice from ASIO that she posed a potential national security threat.

Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil declined to comment.

Ms Sologub, who is married with a child, told 7 News this week she was innocent of the accu­sations and “had nothing to hide’’.

The decision to cancel her visa and raid her home came days after the director-general of ASIO, Mike Burgess, used his annual threat assessment to warn that a “hive of spies’’ was operating in Australia.

Ms Sologub’s professional profile on LinkedIn claims she speaks English, French and Russian, and that she has a long employment history within the space industry.

She was raised in Cork, Ireland, and has previously worked in a senior role at the Irish ­National Space Centre in Cork and earlier for several Irish politicians, including Willie Penrose and Bernard Allen.

Irish police are reported to have approached the Australian police for details, as an urgent ­investigation into her history gets under way in Ireland.

She has sought diplomatic ­assistance from the embassy of Ireland in Canberra.

Irish Minister for Foreign ­Affairs Micheal Martin told RTE Radio 1 that Ms Sologub had sought consular assistance.

“The Australian government – it’s a matter for them in terms of their security situation, and they don’t necessarily contact us in ­respect of security concerns that they have or in respect of deportations that they make as a result of security concerns.”

The City of Marion has moved to cancel her contract, reset all digital devices she used and is ­examining her communications.

ASIO and the police seized all electronic devices at her family home and are going through her communications.

“If I was a Russian spy, the Australian government for sure will never invite me,’’ Ms Sologub told 7 News.

“The whole situation is very devastating, for me, for family – it’s breaking us apart.’’

No charges have been laid against Ms Sologub.

She has a husband, Alexander Sologub, and a young son.

An online fundraiser set up by someone called “Alexander S’’ on GoFundMe to raise money for her legal appeal has been de­activated, after raising $5000 of its $30,000 target.