VWW: WIEN AS SPY PLAYGROUND

According to the British Daily Telegraph, there are 8,500 spies working in Vienna, more than any other city in the world. Most Viennese really do not care about this, but they should, and this tour will show you why. Not only is the reputation of Austria affected by repeated scandals, but there are some very dark forces at work here. The governments of Iran, China and Russia are hostile to democracy, freedom and just about every other human right. When the Putin-friendly FPÖ come near to power, allies stop sharing intelligence with Austria, and we all lose.

So who are these spies, where do they work and live, and why has Vienna established this ugly title, of espionage capital? The reasons are varied, but include geography, history, neutrality, non-existent laws, far-right politicians and greed.

Oil and gas company OMV is involved, and the location of the International Atomic Energy Agency here makes a big difference.

We start our walk at the major Russian compound on Zschokkegasse, continue to United Nations, OMV, the Russian Embassy, and then FPÖ HQ near Rathaus..

While spying has a romantic image from honey-traps, vodka tonic and so many movies featuring fast cars and parties, the reality is more digital and prosaic.

We open up our exploration to look also at positive spying, like during second world war, by brave partisans and resistance fighters, reporting back across enemy lines.

And we all play our part now in surveillance capitalism, by not reading all of those terms and conditions, when we accept cookies on our phones and laptops. Mistake! As local hero Max Schrems, and his rebel group None of Your Business, have shown, we are being watched all the time. And yet, there is great sensitivity in the German-speaking world to privacy, which is ironic given how much watching is going on all around us.

The man pictured above is the most-wanted in the world, Jan Marsalek, an Austrian who disappeared with $2bn in 2020, from his company Wirecard. Through Belarus, he escaped to Russia, where he had been commissioned to collect info on various Western groups and people Putin wanted to target.

Among the stories we will hear are the incompetence of rival Austrian agencies leading up to the Islamist attack on Wien in November 2020, the US support in monitoring Telegram encrypted messages to avoid attacks on Taylor Swift gigs in 2024, Ibizagate, Egisto Ott's shameless spying for Russia, Helmut Zilk as Czech agent, Third Man legends, double agent Sergei Skripal being swapped at Schwechat airport, monitoring the Iran nuclear negotiations, and how Christo Grozev of heroic Bellingcat research was forced to leave his family in Vienna, under threat of death in 2023.

Come and learn, and leave angry about what is going on around us.