Battleground Vienna: Austrian intelligence officer convicted of spying for Russia belongs to a long tradition

By Karina Urbach, Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Historical Research, School of Advanced Study, University of London

Egisto Ott is no James Bond. But the stories the 63-year-old Austrian told a Viennese jury recently would make good plotlines. Ott worked as an intelligence officer in Austria’s now-defunct Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution and Counterterrorism. He was also moonlighting for the Russians.

Prosecutors say Ott, who was sentenced to four years in prison on May 20, handed over information to fellow Austrian Jan Marsalek, the fugitive…

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