Art Gallery, Startup and Argentine Passports: The Story of Elite Russian Spies Held in Slovenia

A yellow house, with weathered red tiles and a brown gate. Title: 35- Tablets. In the garden, imposing magnolias. The house does not attract attention. It is similar to others in the neighborhood Črnuceon the outskirts Ljubljanacapital Slovenia. Inside, a typical family – mother, father and two children – and an ordinary life, not very glamorous. she, Maria Rosa Mayer MonosHe devotes his hours to selling artwork online. he, Ludwig GishInstead, he had .start of technology called DSM & IT which was intended for grants Programming To organize your customers’ mailboxes. His little ones lived a school life like every other kid in the neighborhood, only making it difficult for them to learn the language quickly.

They arrived at this new destination in 2017, with the enthusiasm and skepticism palpable of any immigrant.

The story that they both repeated over and over every time they asked him why they had chosen that destination, was that they were tired of the unsafe life in Argentina. “The streets are bumpy there‘, they told their neighbors, without specifying much more than that. It wasn’t necessary: ​​just googling news. latin americaInsecurity is one of the main issues. The address at which they are registered Argentina was O’Higgins 2191In the Buenos Aires City.

The English Journal guardian He interviewed dozens of neighbors. Everyone had the same concept about those Argentines speak Spanish at home And some English for the rest. “They were nice“,”Nice – goodNothing to doubt. Until one afternoon in the early days of last December, an agent broke into the house, made a thorough search, and arrested them. They also confiscated a large amount of money. The children, unaware of what was really going on, were taken away. to a social care unit.

Disturbing information began to leak out: both of them were part of a Kremlin spy network. Russians with Argentine passports. “Ljubljana sources said this week guardian that “Maria and Ludwig” were in fact elite Russian spies known as the “Outlaws”. The arrests came after Slovenia received information from a foreign intelligence service”, notes the British newspaper. The suspicions of the Slovenian authorities go further. Reserved sources indicated that it would be two members of the SVRforeign intelligence service in Russia.

will choose Slovenia For a simple reason: a little counterintelligence and easy access – without annoying borders – to the rest of Europe. In fact, it was more active outside the country than inside it. MayerEven she was a constant traveler according to her social networks. He did this under the guise of promoting his art gallery and online sales. Suspicions are growing about his contacts with other spies in Europe. as his wife, army He also used his work to travel. However, his Argentine passport was special: it said he was born in it Namibia in 1984.

Last February, when the news first broke, the Slovenian foreign minister said, Tanya Fagonconfirmed that foreigners accused of espionage and detaineesThey are members of the Russian secret service“It is suspected that he acted.”Against the national interests of SloveniaIn recent days, he added more information that was already clear now: “They were not Argentine“.

“Illegal” clients are those who are not informed by the embassies as in the case of Mayer And armywho worked without clear links with Moscow. They have been trained for years to pass themselves off as aliens and are then sent to other countries to infiltrate various structures. And their children usually don’t even know that their parents are Russian..

In April 2022, Slovenia – A member of the European Union and NATO – The expulsion of 33 Russians who were working in the country’s embassy in Ljubljana After Moscow invaded Ukraine. Other countries carried out the same expulsions.DiplomatsAfter the bloody attack he ordered Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“The suspects are members of a foreign intelligence service, who used illegally obtained foreign identity documents to live and work in Slovenia under false identities and secretly gather information.He pointed to the media Drago MignagliaSlovenian police spokesman.

But the story does not end here. Hours after they were arrested – with sums of money suspected of being used to pay other spy agents – he was The Kremlin It reportedly contacted the Slovenian authorities to recognize the nationality of its members and to try to prevent their arrest from being made public. However, they couldn’t do anything. Now, according to these sources of information, Moscow would be in top-secret negotiations with the Western powers to exchange spies for prisoners who might be of interest and who were in Russian hands..

The two remain in detention awaiting trial. Those who were able to see them up close after the arrests indicated that they acted as professionals and stoics. If found guilty, they could be sentenced to eight years in prison. “They took it stoically. They are clearly professionals. But they don’t speak. Now we will see how important these people are for RussiaAn anonymous source indicated.

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