{"id":767496,"date":"2026-06-29T09:34:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-29T09:34:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/767496\/"},"modified":"2026-06-29T09:34:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T09:34:14","slug":"alleged-russian-spies-kira-and-igor-korolev-charged-with-new-espionage-offence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/767496\/","title":{"rendered":"Alleged Russian spies Kira and Igor Korolev charged with new espionage offence"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Two Russian-born Australian citizens accused of attempting to spy for Russia have been charged with a more serious offence, with the initial offence dismissed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Married couple Kira and Igor Korolev appeared side-by-side by video link in Brisbane Magistrates Court today.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Crown prosecutors presented a new bench charge for the couple of conspiracy to commit espionage.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">It is alleged the offence occurred between January 2023 and July 2024 in Brisbane and Russia.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">They were arrested at their Brisbane home in 2024 and charged over allegedly attempting to gather and send state secrets to Russia.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Signs and markers pointing to Brisbane's Magistrates Court\" class=\"Image_image__5tFYM ContentImage_image__DQ_cq\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/3daeaa6cbf4b1cd680ec7de168507113.jpeg\" loading=\"lazy\" data-component=\"Image\" data-lazy=\"true\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"Typography_base__sj2RP FigureCaption_text__zDxQ5 Typography_sizeMobile12__w_FPC Typography_lineHeightMobile20___U7Vr Typography_regular__WeIG6 Typography_colourInherit__dfnUx\" data-component=\"Typography\">Crown prosecutors asked the judge to dismiss an earlier espionage charge against the couple. (ABC News: Luke Bowden)<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Ms Korolev was an army private working as an information systems technician at the time, the Australian Federal Police had said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">She allegedly had taken long-term leave from the Australian Defence Force (ADF) before taking part in &#8220;non-declared travel&#8221; to Russia.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">The couple had initially each been charged with one count of preparing for an espionage offence, which carries a 15-year maximum sentence.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Composite of a man and woman smiling.\" class=\"Image_image__5tFYM ContentImage_image__DQ_cq\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/b8284699abb00f3412eff2e003bd6f18.jpeg\" loading=\"lazy\" data-component=\"Image\" data-lazy=\"true\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"Typography_base__sj2RP FigureCaption_text__zDxQ5 Typography_sizeMobile12__w_FPC Typography_lineHeightMobile20___U7Vr Typography_regular__WeIG6 Typography_colourInherit__dfnUx\" data-component=\"Typography\">Kira and Igor Korolev were arrested and charged in 2024. (Youtube\/Facebook)<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">The Brisbane Magistrates Court heard Crown prosecutors today asked the judge for that charged to be dismissed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">&#8220;For completeness, the offences that were on file, the offence for preparing for an espionage offence, I have no evidence in relation of those charges against both Kira and Igor,&#8221; a prosecutor said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Kira and Igor Korolev were remanded in custody with their matter adjourned until early August.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two Russian-born Australian citizens accused of attempting to spy for Russia have been charged with a more serious&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":767497,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,29622,36619,2025,2973,6679,365320,320870,44,13325,2016,55774],"class_list":["post-767496","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-federal-police","tag-brisbane-magistrates-court","tag-charges","tag-courts","tag-espionage","tag-igor-korolev","tag-kira-korolev","tag-news","tag-prosecutors","tag-russia","tag-spying"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/767496","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=767496"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/767496\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/767497"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=767496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=767496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=767496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}