Austrian Oil And Gas Company OMV Fires Top Executive On Suspicion Of Spying For Russian Federation

What is known.

Austrian oil and gas company OMV has terminated the contract with one of its top managers, who is suspected of passing classified information to Russia. This is reported by the Austrian publication Profil. According to its data, the manager was followed for several months by the Austrian State Security and Intelligence Office (DSN). An employee of the company met regularly in Vienna with a diplomat from the Russian embassy, whom Western intelligence agencies believe to be an FSB agent. The judicial authorities authorized a search in the house of OMV's top manager, during which numerous secret and internal documents were found. The man is currently at large, although a criminal case has been opened over the incident.

Omv emphasized that it "fully cooperates with the competent authorities." The company refused to disclose further details "for data protection reasons". The judicial authorities, in turn, sent a letter to the Russian Foreign Ministry with a request to lift diplomatic immunity from the Russian embassy employee involved in the case. This information was confirmed to APA by the Austrian Foreign Ministry. If the diplomat is not removed immunity, he will be declared persona non grata according to Article 9 of the Vienna Convention, after which he will have to leave the country.

According to Profil, the dismissed top manager enjoyed high confidence in OMV. He was seconded to the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), one of OMV's key shareholders and partners in large-scale projects. These include a deal to merge the petrochemical subsidiaries Borealis and Borouge into one of the largest plastics producers in the world, which is expected to be completed in 2026.

OMV is a partly state-owned company, one of the largest players in the Central European energy market. Headquartered in Vienna, the company employs over 20,000 people. OMV operates Austria's only refinery in Schwechat, which is considered one of the largest in Europe. Until recently, the company was one of the key partners of Russia's Gazprom.

At the background of this case, another process related to suspicions of working for Russia continues in Austria. In August, ORF reported that a former employee of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution and the Fight against Terrorism (BVT), Egisto Ott, would be tried by a jury on charges of spying for Russia, disclosure of state secrets and abuse of office.

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