Soldier, labourer, gold diggers: who are the married couple accused of spying for Russia?
By Angus Thompson, Cloe Read, Cameron Atfield and Adrian Proszenko
For years after her arrival in Australia, Russian-born Australian army soldier Kira Korolev documented her life on film.
The 40-year-old Australian Defence Force private played the ultimate tourist, narrating Russian-language videos about Australian beaches and the extinction of the Tasmanian tiger, sharing photos of outback pubs and seeing the sights of Canberra.
Kira Korolev travelled around Australia looking for gold.Credit: Instagram
It was gold she was really obsessed with, filling her YouTube channel, “The Other Australia”, with footage of her never-ending search for a few glimmering flecks at the bottom of a pan.
“The weekend was a success!” says one captioned Instagram post showing a litter of nuggets as she weighed the haul.
In a YouTube video, she notes: “It’s said that Australians will freely share the locations where gold is often found, but I get the impression there are some secret spots they keep to themselves.”
Her quest took her to remote corners of the country, often lured by the secrets of fenced-off areas, like the 6000-kilometre dingo fence slicing up Queensland and South Australia, and the Woomera Defence base.
“I forgot to mention you need to purchase a special permit that allows you to be here,” she told the camera while exploring Swipers Gully in Victoria. “We just want to show you what this place looks like.”
But it was her alleged search for something of value to Russian intelligence officials that led to her arrest, alongside her 62-year-old labourer husband Igor, at their suburban Brisbane apartment on Thursday morning.
The following day, the pair would be remanded by a magistrate, both charged with one count each of preparing to carry out an act of espionage, after allegedly working in tandem to gain access to material on Defence computer systems to send to Russian operatives.
The AFP allege that Kira Korolev, an information systems technician who held an ADF security clearance, travelled to Russia undeclared while on long-term leave from the army in 2023 and, while she was away, told Igor how to log into Defence systems on her official work account from their Brisbane home.
She had been a regular client of a Gold Coast hairdresser, but stopped going around the time of the Ukraine invasion in 2022.
The hairdresser, who asked not to be named, said Igor Korolev also went to the salon once.
“To be honest, he was a little bit strange, but she was a nice girl,” the hairdresser said. “She’s much younger than him and they would always argue.”
The hairdresser, who has Russian heritage, said she had discussed the Russian invasion with Kira Korolev. She and her colleagues wondered whether that was why they stopped visiting the salon.
“My colleague said probably they stopped coming because we had a different vision about this war,” she said.
The hairdresser said Kira told her she was well-paid by the Australian Army, but also talked about leaving to have a baby.
Kira Korolev, in a photo from 2021 praising her hairdresser for her new short haircut. Credit: Facebook
The hairdresser said Igor also claimed to have had previous military experience overseas.
“Because he said, ‘I still have a lot of friends, some of them died’, like big position in the army,” she said.
AFP commissioner Reece Kershaw said the couple arrived in Australia about 10 years ago, and Kira had received her Australian citizenship in 2016, while Igor received his in 2020. She had been in the army for several years at the time of their arrest. Whether she had entered the ADF with a view to stealing secrets was a topic of investigation, Kershaw said.
They had been under surveillance for several months at their Everton Park home, in Brisbane’s northern suburbs. The arrests came as a surprise to most, although apartment complex caretaker Blake Fraser had advanced warning something was in the works.
Brisbane labourer Igor Korolev.
An earlier visit from ASIO and the Australian Federal Police was the first hint. “It’s been a few months since I was approached for access and I gave them access,” he said.
“At the end of the day, you wouldn’t think – I certainly wouldn’t think – that in my lifetime something like this would have happened.”
Andrew, a resident of the complex, said it housed a lot of ADF personnel who came and went on six- and 12-month leases, with the Enoggera Barracks just over three kilometres away.
He said he had had pleasant interactions with Igor Korolev.
“I saw him a few times. He’d say hello, be friendly, and I’d say hello to him,” he said, adding he was “pretty surprised” to hear of the arrests.
“Andrew”, a neighbour of the Everton Park unit complex in Brisbane where the alleged Russian spies had been living.Credit: Cameron Atfield
But by Friday morning the AFP were distributing vision of Igor and Kira Korolev being marched to and from black SUVs, with detectives either side. Later, Kira would be remanded by Brisbane magistrate Ross Mack, represented by a lawyer though she did not physically appear in court herself.
When it was Igor’s turn, he appeared barefoot in a green top and blue pants, following the proceedings with the assistance of an interpreter. When Mack asked if he had any questions, Igor Korolev shook his head. “Nope,” he said.
In her last video, set against a dazzling Christmas tree and posted in late December 2022, Korolev wished her followers a happy New Year. “I’m hoping the upcoming year will be easier for us than the previous one,” she said.
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