Kira Korolev: Acting PM Richard Marles ‘confident’ alleged Russian spy did not obtain secrets

An alleged Russian spy who worked for the Australian Defence Force did not get her hands on any “secrets,” acting Prime Minister Richard Marles has claimed.

Army private Kira Korolev, 40, and her 62-year-old husband Igor — a self-employed labourer — were arrested earlier this month after a joint investigation by the Australian Federal Police and the Australian Security Intelligence Commission.

The pair face 15 years imprisonment on charges of preparing for an espionage offence. The case is the first time espionage charges have been laid since 2018.

Mr Marles — who was in Perth for the first day of the Indian Ocean Conference — said he was “limited” in what he could tell media, but was “confident” the alleged spy had not passed any important military information to Putin’s regime.

“In the audits and the work that has been undertaken to understand what access has been had, we are really confident that there is no significant piece of information, no significant secret, that is held by our nation, that was accessed by this individual,” the acting PM, who is also Defence Minister, said.

“So we are really confident about the integrity of the Defence Force’s security systems in terms of the way in which we are managing our information.

“And we’re really confident that these individuals have not breached that.”

The Korolevs are accused of using Ms Korolev’s ADF credentials to access sensitive national security material to share with the Kremlin.

The Australian Federal Police alleges that Mrs Korolev undertook undeclared travel to Russia without her husband while on long-term leave from the ADF since 2023.

It is further alleged that while the man remained in Australia, the woman instructed him on how to log into her official work account, and guided him to access specific information to send directly to her private email account while she was in Russia.

In the wake of the allegations against the pair, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese rejected the Russian Embassy’s claims that Australia was spreading “anti-Russian paranoia”.

“Russia engages in espionage here and around the world. Russia has no credibility,” he said at the time.

“And the message to Russia is, how about you get out of Ukraine and stop the illegal and immoral war that you’re engaged in?

“And how about you try to stop interfering in domestic affairs of other sovereign nations. This is a country that has no respect for international law, and they should be regarded with contempt, which is what I have for them.”