Addressing the espionage case, Moscow expressed a protest to Austrian Ambassador to Russia Johannes Aigner over the accusations, calling them baseless. In response, General-Secretary of the Austrian Interior Ministry Peter Goldgruber stated that Vienna hoped that the case would not result in a deterioration of Austrian-Russian relations, Sputnik News reports.
Salzburg State Court ruled not to arrest the retired colonel, suspected of espionage, the news agency ARA reported on Tuesday.
On November 9, Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz stated that a retired Austrian colonel was suspected of espionage for Moscow and demanded that the Russian side provided "transparent" information on the issue. According to Vienna, the officer was spying for Moscow since the 1990s.