Russia accused Australia of inciting "anti-Russian paranoia" for charging a Russian-born couple with espionage, prompting Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Saturday to tell Moscow to "back off." Albanese, speaking to reporters on Saturday, said Russia needed to "stop interfering in domestic affairs of other sovereign nations." Russia engages in espionage here and around the world," Albanese said in Brisbane, the capital of Queensland state, according to a transcript. The wife, 40, an information systems technician in the Australian Army, travelled to Russia and instructed her husband in Australia to log into her official account to access defense materials, police said. Canberra has been supplying defense equipment to Kyiv, banned exports of aluminium ores to Russia and sanctioned more than 1,000 Russian individuals and entities.

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Persons: Anthony Albanese, Kira, Igor Korolev, Albanese, " Albanese Organizations: Australian Federal Police, Labor Party, Kyiv, NATO, Australian Broadcasting Corp, Australian Army Locations: Russian, Australia's, Canberra, Russia, Australia, Moscow, Brisbane, Queensland, Ukraine, Washington, Brisbane magistrate's, Kyiv