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Zorro

(16,068 posts)
Mon Jun 17, 2024, 11:31 AM Jun 2024

The Russian Spies Next Door

LJUBLJANA, Slovenia—The young Argentine couple in the pastel-colored house lived a seemingly ordinary suburban life, driving around this sleepy European capital in a white Kia Ceed sedan, always paying their taxes on time and never so much as getting a parking ticket.

Maria Rosa Mayer Muños ran an online art gallery, telling acquaintances she’d left Argentina after being robbed in Buenos Aires by an armed gang at a red light. Her husband, Ludwig Gisch, ran an IT startup. Described by neighbors in their middle-class district of Črnuče as “normal” and “quiet,” the husband and wife appeared to be global citizens: switching from English and German with friends to accentless Spanish with their son and daughter, who attended the British International School.

Yet almost everything about the family from number 35 Primožičeva street was a carefully constructed lie, according to Slovenian and Western intelligence officials. Gisch’s real name is Artem Viktorovich Dultsev, born in the Russian autonomous republic of Bashkortostan and an elite officer in Russia’s foreign intelligence service, the SVR, according to the officials and court documents.

Mayer Muños is Anna Valerevna Dultseva, a more senior SVR officer than her partner, from Nizhny Novgorod. The couple’s computers contained hardware to communicate securely to handlers in Moscow that was so encrypted neither Slovenian nor U.S. technicians could crack it. In a secret compartment inside their refrigerator, they kept hundreds of thousands of euros in crisp bank notes.

https://www.wsj.com/world/europe/the-russian-spies-next-door-bd7c7312?st=8gkkmmh4f7b4l40&reflink=share_mobilewebshare

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The Russian Spies Next Door (Original Post) Zorro Jun 2024 OP
You should see the inside of my refrigerator. mahatmakanejeeves Jun 2024 #1
You so funny flying_wahini Jun 2024 #2
This is quite an incredible story. flying_wahini Jun 2024 #3
This confirms a lot of my thinking. To Americans that want to ignore Putin BootinUp Jun 2024 #4
See also, The Americans (fiction)... Hermit-The-Prog Jun 2024 #5
Cold, hard cash. eggplant Jun 2024 #6
Don't think not even for one minute they're not here. Fla Dem Jun 2024 #7
Wouldn't be surprised if Melania isn't one. llmart Jun 2024 #8
I would be stunned if there were no spies at Mar-a-Lago. CaptainTruth Jun 2024 #9

mahatmakanejeeves

(59,816 posts)
1. You should see the inside of my refrigerator.
Mon Jun 17, 2024, 11:57 AM
Jun 2024

I’m defrosting now.

In a secret compartment inside their refrigerator, they kept hundreds of thousands of euros in crisp bank notes.

flying_wahini

(7,717 posts)
3. This is quite an incredible story.
Mon Jun 17, 2024, 12:56 PM
Jun 2024

Lots of work to keep them hidden and under the radar; filtering money and traveling around the world, marrying teams to keep it going. Seems like an awful lot of trouble to infiltrate but didn’t get what their purpose was.

Was it just to have people online to steal information? To provide what?
Did they have access to state secrets? To be online trolls?

BootinUp

(48,341 posts)
4. This confirms a lot of my thinking. To Americans that want to ignore Putin
Mon Jun 17, 2024, 01:03 PM
Jun 2024

wake up. He will not let you ignore him.

Fla Dem

(25,195 posts)
7. Don't think not even for one minute they're not here.
Mon Jun 17, 2024, 02:24 PM
Jun 2024

The difference may be they are American citizens trying their best to tear America apart. Either as demonstrators, or maybe even as US Politicians. It happened before during WWII and it's probably happening again.

llmart

(16,144 posts)
8. Wouldn't be surprised if Melania isn't one.
Mon Jun 17, 2024, 02:33 PM
Jun 2024

Maybe her parents too. Didn't he fast track their citizenship?

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