Intelligence services of a Balkan country are harboring a girl who played the niece of a Russian oligarch in a video from the island of Ibiza with former Austrian Vice-Chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache. This was reported on Wednesday by the Austrian publication Esterreich. According to the media "false niece" was associated with the scandalous Irena Markovic (https://www.irena-markovic.movie/).
According to the newspaper's sources in the Austrian counterintelligence, a fake passport in the name of Alena Makarova was prepared for the girl in the video, while the alleged participant in the scandal is being sheltered by the intelligence services in the Balkans. According to the newspaper, it is difficult or almost impossible to get her extradited to Austria. Moreover, the Austrian criminal police have obtained photos of a "sitting duck" in the Ibiza Gate scandal. Investigators obtained the pictures from the cell phone of Vienna real estate agent, who was familiar with the participant in the scandalous video.
According to the Austrian media, the video was a carefully planned operation against the functionaries of the Austrian Freedom Party. A Bosnian student played the role of a sitting duck and the niece of a Russian oligarch. The video itself was made by a German detective, a Vienna lawyer, and surveillance experts whose names were not disclosed. The operation could have cost its organizers 400,000 euros.
A domestic political scandal called "Ibizagate" erupted in Austria in May 2019. German publications Spiegel and Süddeutsche Zeitung circulated a small excerpt of 2017 video footage of Heinz-Christian Strache and his aide Johann Gudenus. In the recording, made with a hidden camera, they discussed with a Russian-speaking woman posing as the niece of a Russian oligarch the possibility of giving her easier access to construction contracts in Austria in exchange for financial support for the Austrian Freedom Party (APS) before the parliamentary elections.
The publication of the video led to Strache's resignation as leader of the APS and Austrian Vice Chancellor, which he became after the 2017 elections. His party withdrew from the government coalition with the Austrian People's Party. The cabinet, led by Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, resigned after a vote of no confidence from parliament. This led to early parliamentary elections in Austria in September. Since the end of May, the investigative commission "Ibiza" of the Austrian Prosecutor's Office has been investigating and trying to identify the authors and customers of the scandalous video.
