Austria's foreign ministry said on Friday it is expelling four Russian diplomats based in Vienna, declaring them personae non gratae over what it called activities incompatible with their diplomatic status — the diplomatic term usually used for spying — and ordering them to leave the country. Russia answered within hours, with its embassy in Vienna calling the expulsions a further unfriendly step and warning that a response will inevitably follow.
The ministry said the decision rested on findings by Austria's security authorities. "Based on findings by the Austrian security authorities, the Austrian foreign ministry has taken measures against four Russian diplomats in Vienna," it said in a statement. Three of the four worked at Russia's embassy to Austria. The fourth served at the Russian mission to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), where his portfolio covered military security and arms control. The ministry did not publicly detail what the four are alleged to have done; Austria does not usually comment on the specifics of such expulsions.
The move brings to 18 the number of Russian diplomats Austria has expelled since 2020. Austria is a neutral country, but its governments have politically sided with Ukraine since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in 2022. In the last round, in May, Austria expelled three Russian diplomats and said then that it was because of an "antenna forest" on the roofs of Russian diplomatic buildings that could be used for spying.
Moscow's answer came on two levels. Russian news agencies cited a foreign ministry official in Moscow saying Russia will respond to the expulsions, without elaborating. The Russian embassy in Vienna went further in a statement on its website, describing the expulsions as "a further unfriendly step" by the Austrian authorities.
"Vienna is thoughtlessly following the West's anti-Russian policy, and there will inevitably be an appropriate response to such measures."
The setting matters to both sides. Vienna is one of the world's great diplomatic capitals: it hosts the OSCE and United Nations organisations including the International Atomic Energy Agency, and larger countries such as Russia and the United States keep separate ambassadors to Austria, to the OSCE and to the UN bodies, each running their own embassy or mission. Divided into Allied sectors after World War Two, the city has long had a reputation as a den of spies, and its large diplomatic presence offers the opportunity to station intelligence agents under the cover of diplomatic immunity.
Neither side, on Friday's statements, gave ground: Austria says its security authorities produced findings that left it no choice but to declare the four unwelcome, while Russia says Vienna is simply following an anti-Russian Western policy and promises an answer it has not yet spelled out. The expulsions rest on security findings Austria has chosen not to publish, and the diplomats are entitled to no public hearing — so what happens next depends on the response Moscow has promised and says is inevitable.