A counterintelligence agent who was a double agent of the Kremlin and connected to a Russian spy group exposed in Britain has been arrested in Austria

 Austrian authorities called an emergency meeting of the National Security Council on Tuesday, prompted by the late March arrest of 61-year-old Egisto Ott, an Austrian counterintelligence agent who allegedly worked for Russia, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday.

"The security situation in the republic must be assessed and clarified," Chancellor Karl Nehammer said last week. "We must prevent the threat to our country from Russian espionage networks by infiltrating or using political parties or networks."

Justice Minister Alma Zadych said last week that legal loopholes that allow spying - as long as it is not directed against Austria - should be strengthened.

"The Otto case further reinforces the suspicions that Western intelligence agencies harbor about their Austrian partners," said Markus Hau, a geopolitical risk analyst at VE Insight. "He was able to access classified information with astonishing ease. Such complacency does not inspire optimism."

Prosecutors have been investigating Ott's ties to Russia since 2017, when he began tracking the Kremlin defector's movements, according to a copy of the 86-page arrest warrant obtained by Bloomberg. According to investigators, after a short suspension from work and transfer to another position, he continued to trade classified information for money.

The arrest warrant alleges that, among other things, Ott:

Provided classified information to fugitive Jan Marsalek, who is wanted for fraud and suspected of ties to Russian special services

Passed over the mobile phone data of several high-ranking Austrian officials

Collected information on persons of interest to Russia and shared some of that information with Marsalek

Gave Marsalek the Vienna address of Bellingcat investigative journalist Hristo Grozev. Later, a group commissioned by Marsalek broke into Grozev's apartment, where they stole a laptop and a USB drive.

They helped Marsalek smuggle a stolen SINA laptop to Moscow - a device used by European governments to transmit encrypted information

An analysis was prepared with recommendations for improving the situation after the 2019 murder of a Chechen dissident in Berlin by order of the Russian authorities.

The warrant for Ott's arrest was issued only after British prosecutors revealed new information last month linking the Austrian to a wider European spy network linked to Marsalek. Ott was friendly with another Austrian fugitive agent who helped Marsalek escape, presumably to Belarus or Russia.

It was previously reported that British intelligence suspects a man named Ian Marsalek, who was better known as the former chief operating officer of the Austrian company Wirecard, of liaising and coordinating the activities of an ethnic Bulgarian spy group operating in Great Britain.