Russian-born Australian couple charged with espionage 02:34

This is a very intriguing story. A Russian-born private in the Australian Army and her labourer husband have both been charged with stealing sensitive Australian Defence Force material to aid, allegedly, Kremlin intelligence, Russian intelligence. Andrew Probrant is Nine's National Affairs Editor and he's all over this story. Andrew, what more do we know?

Well, I'm actually standing outside ASIO as we speak because we're just about to film off the camera. What more do we know? We know that this couple, Kira and Igor Korolev, came to Australia, already married more than 10 years ago. They have spent time all around Australia, including working as security officers in WA. At some point in the last few years,

Kira has got a job working in signals intelligence inside defence in Ogra Barracks up in Brizzy.

This gives her access to highly classified material. She took some leave from defence, a long-term leave, went back to Russia, undeclared travel, and from Russia she instructed her husband Igor to access some defence material.

and then asked him to send it back to her on her private email to Russia. They've obviously waited for her to come back to Australia and they made the arrest yesterday. So it's a pretty extraordinary, a real life Cold War story. Do we know the substance of what they were accessing, the information?

No, we don't. But in the context of the...

of the Russian war in Ukraine, combat intelligence, especially when it comes to encrypted communications. That would be key, one would think. But look, once you've got access, I suppose, it depends inside defence. It depends on what level of access you've got as to what material you can glean.

Andrew Proban, I'll leave you to it. Thank you so much. Thanks, Chris. That's Nine's National Affairs Editor, Andrew Proban.