The story starts like an espionage-thriller movie. On the 5th of December 2022, in a spectacular action (using a break-in by smashing glass on the windows), police officers (and supposedly also agents of the Slovenian Intelligence and Security Agency – SOVA) broke into a house in Ljubljana’s Črnuče district and quickly arrested a married couple of Argentinian origin, who – at least on the surface – were engaged in business and had two children. The children did not know that their parents were, in fact, Russian and also spies in the service of the Putin regime, and they only recently learned about all of this, when the story took an unexpected turn.
The news of the arrest came to light almost two months later, at the end of January 2023. The Slovenian Intelligence and Security Agency had reportedly been observing the spy couple for months after receiving a tip-off from abroad (!) that the two Argentinian businesspeople were, in fact, covert Russian informers. Or, to put it better: they were two agents who came to Slovenia more with the intention of “repairing” Russia’s image here by making contacts and spreading propaganda in a covert way. Immediately after their arrest, they were taken into custody, but it took a year and a half for them to appear in court. All this was done in the strictest secrecy. The suspects for the offences of espionage and false certification – using identity documents with false identities – faced up to eight years in prison, and a final court decision opened an investigation on suspicion of the offences of espionage for foreign intelligence services and false certification under the second paragraph of Article 253 of the Criminal Code. The two persons identified themselves as Argentinian nationals Ludwig Gisch and Maria Rosa Mayer Munos, but in reality, they are Artem Viktorovich Dultsev and Anna Valerevna Dultseva. They lived in Argentina before coming to Slovenia. With their fake identities.
The day after the verdict, they were already on a plane to Moscow
The delicacy of this case is shown by the fact that the spy couple was sentenced in the Ljubljana District Court on the last day of July, practically in the middle of the judicial holidays. They confessed to the crime and were sentenced to one year and seven months in prison, less than a quarter of the maximum sentence. And, of course, a secondary measure: expulsion from the country. Why, after a year and a half, was there a sudden trial during the judicial holidays? It was obviously a quick action based on information that a prisoner exchange was taking place between Russia and the West.
The very day after the verdict, the family arrived in Moscow by plane, where they were warmly received by Russian President Vladimir Putin. Slovenia has therefore sent the two convicted spies back to Russia, but they will certainly not serve their sentences there. The conviction in Ljubljana was merely a side measure to reassure the Slovenian public and international politics that Slovenia was cooperating with the West in an exemplary way. It is not known what our country got in exchange for the two spies, as there are reportedly no Slovenian citizens imprisoned in Russia.
Distance from Putin only on the surface
But something else is definitely well-known here: Slovenian politics was deeply involved in this story. The ruling parties, of course. If until now we thought that the ruling coalition and the President of the Republic, Nataša Pirc Musar – also known for being the owner of the Russian Dacha – were keeping a sharp distance from Putin’s policies, it turns out that things are not what they seem. And that it is apparently true that the real boss of the Golob government is, in fact, the Mayor of Ljubljana, Zoran Janković, who, incidentally, still holds a Putin decoration. And, of course, he is also a protégé of Serbia, which is increasingly crawling into Putin’s lap. After all, the alliance between Aleksandar Vučić and Zoran Janković also contributed to what was practically a political liquidation of the “enemy of Serbia,” Klemen Grošelj, before the elections to the European Parliament, who then unsuccessfully stood for another term in the European Parliament on the list of Green Party of Slovenia (Zeleni Slovenije).
Was the arrest of the spies postponed by Prime Minister Golob himself?
But let’s go back a little further. When the break between the former Minister of the Interior, Tatjana Bobnar, along with the then-Acting Dicretor-General of the police, Boštjan Lindav, and Prime Minister Robert Golob took place, there was a public uproar as both spoke out about Golob’s interference in the work of the police. It has also come to light that the arrest of the aforementioned Russian spies was originally scheduled for the 28th of November 2022, immediately after the triple referendum that turned out in favour of the ruling coalition, and that a press conference on the arrest would follow a day later. Well, as is well known, the arrest actually took place a week later than what was originally planned, and the public knew nothing about it for almost two months.
Of course, only a few people in the country know exactly what Bobnar and Lindav said in October 2023, during a closed session of the National Assembly’s Commission for Supervision of the Intelligence and Security Services. Reportedly, the order to postpone the arrest (because it could overshadow the government’s post-referendum celebrations) came from Prime Minister Golob himself to the chief of the Intelligence and Security Agency, Joško Kadivnik, who then informed the chief of the National Bureau of Investigation (NPU), Darko Muženič, who was also involved in the project, of the postponement.
There was no note of protest
When the spies were arrested, apparently, no note of protest was sent from the Slovenian Foreign Ministry to the Russian Embassy in Ljubljana about the Russian espionage, while the then-State Secretary in Golob’s office, Andrej Benedejčič – who is now (again) the Slovenian ambassador to NATO – boasted that this was the biggest success of the Slovenian Intelligence and Security Agency so far (recently, the current State Secretary in Golob’s cabinet, Vojko Volk, also gave a very similar explanation). The aforementioned former MEP Klemen Grošelj commented on the matter for the national media outlet, RTV Slovenia, presenting it in a somewhat different light: “Personally, I believe and claim that the greatest successes of intelligence services are usually those that are not known to the public. Here, however, the news was probably leaked to the public with deliberation and with a certain political objective.” And apparently, Grošelj, another one of those who Golob got rid of for one reason or another, was right.
Golob’s empty boasting
As already mentioned, State Secretary Volk, who was also a candidate for the position of Member of the European Parliament on the list of the ruling Freedom Movement party (Gibanje Svoboda), boasted to the public about Slovenia’s participation in the largest and most complex operation since the end of the Cold War. “In doing so, we contributed to the release of persons who were wrongfully imprisoned in the Russian Federation and wrongfully convicted, including sentenced to death, for carrying out journalistic work, for their personal or political convictions, or for drawing attention to violations of fundamental human rights and freedoms in the Russian Federation. Our thoughts go out to all those who are serving sentences in Russian prisons simply for opposing the senseless war against Ukraine and for not having the right to freedom of expression,” said Volk, who is technically right in this case.
But again, information is lacking on exactly whom the Putin regime has released from prison and sent to the West in exchange for its spies. Robert Golob boasted even more, saying that Slovenia had achieved a historic feat – something he had also reportedly discussed with the President of the USA, Joe Biden. The latter is said to have called Golob twice, proving that Slovenia, as a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, is playing a very visible, active role in international politics at this time.
The Intelligence and Security Agency wanted to help the spies
However, in an interview the spies gave to state television after their arrival in Russia, they revealed that a member of the Foreign Intelligence Service – SVR, an official of the Russian embassy in Ljubljana, visited them in Ljubljana where they were detained and conveyed Putin’s greetings and a message that Russia was trying to rescue them. In prison, “we did not doubt for a moment that the state has not forgotten about us, and that Russia and the service were behind us,” Dultsev said. They also revealed that Argentina, of which they are citizens, wanted to take their children away and place them in a foster family. According to Anna Dultseva, they felt that the Slovenian Intelligence and Security Service had done everything possible to keep the children in Slovenia and to keep them together. She added that they felt that Slovenia was being pressured by other countries. Well, these claims, which the Slovenian Government did not dare to comment on, are telling enough, because this interview revealed that the Slovenian Intelligence and Security Agency was apparently much more aware of the Russian spy network than we originally thought. And the same applies to the ruling authorities. But they did nothing until there was pressure from abroad.
Very tricky business for the authorities, indeed
What was even more telling, however, was the foreign media, which gave the two spies from Ljubljana’s Črnuče quite a bit of coverage. And they also published some information that proved that Golob’s boasting was nothing but lies. For example, the Wall Street Journal revealed: “Shortly after the arrest, Russia contacted the pair, admitted they were working for the SVR and said it wanted them back. Slovenia wanted to trade quickly and avoid any opposition to the Kremlin, but no deal could be reached. Slovenian officials were ‘praying to get rid of them’,” one senior official said. It was obvious that the arrest itself was a serious matter for Slovenia and that pressure from other Western intelligence agencies to do something was probably behind all of this.
And after all of the above, the question arises – why did Slovenia present its role so pompously, and why, in reality, was it so miserable? It is very likely that the core of the story lies in the schizophrenic nature of Slovenia’s ruling coalition, which has to present itself to the Western public as a credible partner, while, at the same time, its main godfathers are allies of the Kremlin. We have already mentioned Janković, but Milan Kučan is also still flirting with the Kremlin and the “it’s all the same” view of Ukraine. It is worth recalling another connection: Russia is using Iranian-made drones to attack Ukraine, and Iran recently asked Moscow for help in preparing for the alleged “punishment” of Israel for its liquidation of the leader of Hamas on Iranian soil. And let’s not forget: the regime in Tehran is a strong ally not only of the Kremlin, but also of Hamas and Hezbollah.
The “Iranian Princess” Tanja Fajon
Iran is also closely linked with the Slovenian transitional left. A decade and a half ago, the NLB Bank, our largest bank, laundered a huge amount of Iranian money, for which no one was held accountable, but which endangered our security and, on the other hand, enabled the financing of terrorist organisations. The question arises of who were the recipients of the commissions in this ordeal and what motives the transitional left had in preventing the case from being sanctioned. The question also arises, of course, of why the current Minister of Foreign and European Affairs, Tanja Fajon, has such a strong affinity with Iran, as, for example, she said only a few months ago, after the death of the then-Iranian President, that it was necessary to mourn, and more recently, she reportedly called on Iran to “exercise restraint” and negotiated by telephone with the head of Iran’s diplomacy. Well, the parliamentary investigation into money laundering has already shown the political responsibility of the Pahor government, with particular reference to the then-Finance Minister Franc Križanič and the then-Foreign Minister Samuel Žbogar, who now heads the Slovenian mission to the UN Security Council. In this context, it is worth recalling that it was the Social Democrats party (Socialni demokrati – SD), which Fajon is also a part of, that was most reluctant to hold a parliamentary inquiry into Iranian money laundering. It later became clear why. Evil tongues say, however, that apparently the “old acquaintances” from the NLB Bank, the so-called “Mickey Mouse” and “Donald Duck,” are now shaping Slovenian foreign policy, which is why Slovenia, whose political leadership claims to be proactive because of its current membership of the UN Security Council, has ended up in the company of tacit supporters of Hamas. This is a far cry from “core” Europe.
For five years, they spied undisturbed, and no one knew anything about it
All this reveals that the editor and journalist Peter Jančič is right when he says that Vladimir Putin does not actually need his spies in Slovenia. We have at least one pro-Russian party here, and on top of that, some media outlets are very bad at disguising their pro-Kremlin views, not to mention the fact that even the political top of the transitional left has a hard time hiding its servile attitude towards Putin’s Russia, even though they refuse to show it on the outside. The spy story only confirms all this. Although Golob wanted to use it as a success story, after being informed that it was detrimental to Slovenia’s security, it turned out that it was more the foreign intelligence services that contributed to it than Slovenia. The ruling politicians then looked for a way to get rid of the two spies in the most elegant way possible, so as not to offend the Kremlin too much. The prisoner exchange came as ordered, but apparently, Slovenia boarded the train more by accident. Some even suggest that the Slovenian Intelligence and Security Agency was actually acting more under duress, and that, perhaps, they could not hide the spy couple from foreign intelligence services, but instead had to make an arrest under pressure. In the house where the spy couple was staying, it is alleged that (in addition to cash) electronic devices for sending encrypted messages to Moscow were found. Is it surprising that since the two undercover Russians arrived in Slovenia in 2017, the Slovenian Intelligence and Security Agency had not detected anything suspicious for at least five years, until it was alerted about it from abroad? And now, another Russian family lives in the same house.
In short, Putin must be very proud of his vassals in Slovenia, because even after the arrest, there was no counter-action from the Russian Federation. What role the godfathers, who apparently have a strong international backing both in Belgrade and Moscow (such as Zoran Jankovic), played here will probably remain a mystery for a while longer.
G. B.
