Where the rouble rolled

Egisto Ott case: a spy nest in a municipal building

Where the rouble rolled: Information was probably exchanged for cash several times in the powerful Nittel-Hof in the north of Vienna. Officials are said to have removed files and data carriers from the apartment on a grand scale.

(Bild: Klemens Groh)

Moscow's arm reaches as far as the Heinz-Nittel-Hof in Vienna-Floridsdorf. Here, on Good Friday, the handcuffs clicked for the son-in-law of former constitutional protector Egisto Ott.

The "Krone" reported extensively on the Ott case: Last Friday, the former constitutional protector was arrested in his Carinthian villa on suspicion of espionage and has been in pre-trial detention ever since. Almost at the same time, a spectacular police operation took place in the Nittel-Hof, which is causing a stir in the huge council estate. 

The "Krone" on a local inspection in a Viennese municipal housing estate - in an apartment there the rouble was rolling with Russian spies.

Where the rouble rolled: In the mighty Nittel-Hof in the north of Vienna, information may have been exchanged for cash on several occasions. Officials are said to have removed files and data carriers from the apartment on a grand scale.

(Bild: Klemens Groh)

What the residents could not have known: One of their neighbors was in the middle of the agent thriller instead of just being there, an apartment the scene of multiple espionage activities "to the detriment of Austria", as it is officially called.

Behind this apartment door, which is secured with an impressive three locks, a real spy thriller is likely to have taken place.

(Bild: Klemens Groh)

On Good Friday, Ott's son-in-law was taken away, who is said to have handled the handovers - information in exchange for cash - in his apartment. The 51-year-old has since been released.

Further investigations will show whether he was just an unsuspecting errand boy or whether he was more deeply involved in the espionage swamp. The client was the phantom Jan Marsalek, the "Most Wanted" who had gone into hiding in Moscow.

Historian Dieter Bacher researches the world of intelligence services at the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Research on the Consequences of War in Graz.

(Bild: Dieter Bacher, BIK Graz)

Even during the Cold War, private apartments fulfilled various functions for secret and intelligence services, says Dieter Bacher, intelligence expert at the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Research on the Consequences of War.

However, these were normally rented by front men or cover organizations. Not so in the Ott case, where a relative's council apartment was misappropriated: "This kind of thing is risky and actually an unnecessary risk from an operational point of view," explains Bacher. It would probably have been safer to meet up for a walk in the Danube floodplains - at least that's what the "professionals" did during the Cold War.

Dieter Bacher will be a live guest on krone.tv today at 9.30 am - tune in!