Investigation underway

Trap in Ibiza: this is what the “shabby Russian” says

The woman played her role in the video perfectly.

(Bild: BK, Krone KREATIV)

The video decoy in the FPÖ affair reveals secrets for the first time: "The world needs to know about politicians like this."

More than five years after one of Austria's biggest political scandals, the Vienna public prosecutor's office is still investigating the "shoafted Russian" - as Heinz-Christian Strache called her on that power-intoxicated night on the Spanish party island - on suspicion of falsifying documents. However, investigations into the production of the video in a bugged villa with the then blue grandees Heinz-Christian Strache and party colleague Johann Gudenus were discontinued.

Ibiza decoy was present at the video handover
The interrogation of 41-year-old Latvian Una S., who played the alleged Russian oligarch's niece "Alyona Makarova", was carried out by the state security service in the capital Riga. The statements of the divorced and currently unemployed mother are quite interesting.

Johann Gudenus, Strache and Tajana Gudenus (from left) on the infamous recordings

(Bild: APA/SPIEGEL/SÜDDEUTSCHE ZEITUNG/HARALD SCHNEIDER)

Una S. admits that she was present at the video handover to journalists with the Ibiza detective in Germany near the Polish border: "It was only when I arrived there and met Julian Hessenthaler that I found out about the existence of the video. The journalists wanted to see me to convince themselves that I was a real person." Hessenthaler had already met her three years before the affair broke "around 2015 or 2016" in a bar in the center of Vienna. He gave the impression of being an influential person." Hessenthaler invented the cover name Alyona. "Based on the information available to me, I can imagine that he presented me to these people as a rich Russian girl."

(Bild: zVg)

She did not know what offices they held. And what was the aim of publishing the secretly made recordings? "The world must know about such politicians in Austria!"

Financial movements of more than one million euros
Otherwise, the beautiful decoy with the only noticeable shortcoming of dirty toenails is pretending to be clueless. As far as the manhunt for her, the alleged falsification of documents and the production of the video are concerned. "I never received any payment for it." Of course, this version does not match the account openings at Una S. In total, financial movements amounting to more than one million euros (!) were detected.

There were also at least three bank transfers with the text "Alyona Makarova Ibiza affair". The investigation is now also about suspected money laundering ...