The pair of Russian spies who were arrested in Slovenia in 2022 are believed to have used the country as a “base” to travel to several other European countries, including Italy and Croatia, to pay for, as well as relay orders from Moscow. A series of details of the arrest have recently appeared in the international media.
Several sources confirmed to the American Wall Street Journal that two individuals have been charged with espionage and that a “secret” trial is expected to be concluded in the coming weeks. The couple arrived in Slovenia with Argentinian passports, and under the false names of Maria Rosa Mayer Munos and Ludwig Gisch, and they lived in Ljubljana.
The woman ran an online art gallery, and her husband ran an IT start-up. According to documents obtained by the US newspaper, Gisch’s real name is Artem Viktorovich Dultsev, and he was born in the Russian Autonomous Republic of Bashkortostan. He is actually an officer in the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR). His wife, whose real name is Anna Valerevna Dultseva, is also an SVR officer, ranking even higher than her husband.
100,000 euros behind the kitchen fridge
After their arrest in December 2022, agents of the Slovenian security services found “hardware” allegedly used to communicate with Moscow, which, according to some sources, “was encrypted to the point of not allowing access to either Slovenian technicians or the Americans.”
According to a recent article, during the raid, agents found a secret compartment behind the kitchen fridge containing hundreds of thousands of euros. Anonymous officials told the Wall Street Journal that the two spies had also “trained” their two sons in case they were arrested.
In light of all of the above, it is important to note that there are indications that the arrest took place only in December, on the orders of Prime Minister Robert Golob, because he did not want the news to overshadow the victory in the referendums.
After the arrest in Slovenia, two more spies escaped in Greece
Other sources told the newspaper that after the arrest, two more alleged Russian spies (a woman and a man with Greek and Brazilian passports respectively) left Athens and Rio de Janeiro using false names (Maria Tsalla and Ludwig Campos Wittich). Apparently, after the arrest of the spies in Slovenia, they were recalled from their positions by Moscow, for “fear of a possible collapse of the spy network”.
I. K.
