> mentioning this in context of energy trade

This is in historical context rather ridiculous. This is actually related to the Gulf War, and Iraq (yay, the Western ally in the greater region) formerly prominently supplying Austrian demand. With sanctions and then the war, Austria was looking for alternative sources and settled on Russia, which offered long-term guarantees and has thus stepped into the role of the most prominent supplier, since. (I actually do remember the then federal minister stepping in front of TV cameras and declaring supplies secured, thanks to this "historic deal".) In hindsight, this is more a case of out of the frying pan and into the fire. Not that there hadn't been internal and external pressure to do anything about this, but, as infrastructure had developed, there was – and still is – not much of an alternative. Mind that some German natural gas storage is located in Austria and is supplied by the same sources, as well.

This is tied to those days of the coalition of the conservative party with the FPÖ, which terminated on Mai 28, 2019 (which is significantly before 2022), with strong positions of the FPÖ in the entire security apparatus (including some infights with strongholds of the conservative party in these institutions, related court cases ongoing). Kneissl left already before this, in early June 2019.

The FPÖ had actually signed a cooperation agreement with Putin's party "United Russia" in 2016, which is not to terminate before 2026.

Austria and Vienna in particular as a "playground for spies" is something entirely different and goes back to the days even before the Cold War era. Austria has, like many other countries, only laws against espionage which is against its own interests. So espionage against an other country has been perfectly legal. This also served a vital function in the Cold War era, where Austria, also after WWII a neutral country and explicitly so as a buffer between blocks, played a bridging role and was a crucial exchange. However, most of this espionage was actually what we would now call open source intelligence and it was really more a matter of proximity to the places of actual interest.

(On the other hand, the Austrian military intelligence has some agreements of cooperation with the NSA and won't report to parliament on the matter, while the latter still has official oversight. As citizens, we can only guess. So, I wouldn't say that this is particularly lopsided in favour of any Eastern interests. Moreover, Austria installed a law, which fines relaying any Russian sources by up to EUR 50,000, rather early on in the conflict.)

>the Austrian military intelligence has some agreements of cooperation with the NSA

Same with Australia, whose people are also unable to gain oversight over their militarys' activities.

The more the "mah' Russia!" crowd bleat, the more it looks like we've actually manifested the very apparatus the Soviets' would have implemented, too, were they still around ..

Thanks for your comments. I appreciate the details.