A woman accused of sharing Australian information with Russian officials appeared in an advertisement for the Australian armed forces.
Russian-born Australians Kira Korolev, 40, and her husband Igor, 62, were arrested in Brisbane on Thursday over an alleged espionage plot targeting the military.
Kira, who was an IT specialist with the ADF, is said to have secretly traveled to Russia and asked her husband to access documents and send them to her.
It appears she was in the recruitment material for the ADF and said: ‘I was able to join without any prior knowledge because the army offered full training’.
Previous posts on her social media indicated that she was “very interested in joining the armed forces” but that she was “not yet sure what role she might take on.”
Police will investigate whether she joined the ADF with the intention of espionage.
The couple have lived in Australia for over a decade. Kira was granted Australian citizenship in 2016 and Igor in 2020.
They are the first to be charged with espionage in Australia, leading to a verbal confrontation between the Russian embassy in Canberra and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.
Russian-born Australian Kira Korolev (pictured), 40, who is accused of espionage, is said to have appeared on the job vacancy page of her employer, the armed forces.
Court documents obtained by the Courier Mail reveal that police will accuse the couple of operating as Russian spies from December 2022.
Now-deleted footage from Kira’s YouTube channel Another Australia shows her travels through major Australian cities featuring military bases.
She notes in a video that there are “no machine gunners” and “no army” along the Dingo Fence, which stretches more than 5,600km from Queensland to South Australia.
Kira visited a section of the fence at Cooper Pedy in South Australia and told how often rangers patrol the area.
“We cannot say for sure that there is no secret alien or military base behind the fence, because we have not covered every meter of it,” she told her followers.
In another video, she is seen at a war memorial in Darwin, talking about the city as home to the country’s largest military base and the many tunnels used in World War II.
Mr Albanese said he remains confident in Australia’s national security services’ screening processes.
“The threats to us are light-hearted,” he said.
‘They are constantly trying to find ways to harm and thwart our national interests.
‘That is why our authorities continuously monitor their performance.’
Kira worked for the ADF as an IT expert before allegedly asking her husband Igor, 62, to share documents with her during a secret trip to Russia
The couple are the first Australians to be charged with espionage after coming to Australia more than a decade ago and gaining Australian citizenship (pictured is Igor being arrested)
The Russian embassy on Saturday accused the Australian Federal Police and intelligence agency chiefs of stoking anti-Russian paranoia.
“The press conference by the leaders of AFP and ASIO on 12 July was clearly intended to unleash a new wave of anti-Russian paranoia in Australia,” the embassy said in a statement.
‘Theatrical tricks were used, such as talking to imaginary ‘Russian spies’, who were believed to be everywhere.’
However, the prime minister stated that Russia had no credibility and was engaged in espionage all over the world.
“Russia gets the message, so keep your head down,” Albanese said Saturday.
‘How about leaving Ukraine and ending the illegal and immoral war you are engaged in? And how about not interfering in the internal affairs of other sovereign countries?
“(Russia) is a country that has no respect for international law. They should be treated with contempt, and that’s what I have for them.”
AFP Commissioner Reece Kershaw said police would link the information they were trying to obtain to the country’s national security interests.
But the Russian embassy in Australia called the couple’s detention “a new wave of anti-Russian paranoia”.