Slovenian Foreign Minister Tania Fayon said that in December last year, a married couple was detained in Ljubljana, who, under the guise of Argentine citizens, worked for the Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR). The Guardian writes about it.
The arrest in Ljubljana of a couple suspected of spying for Russia was reported in January by 24ur.com and Delo. According to the Slovenian Intelligence and Security Service (SOVA), they lived in the country under the guise of citizens of one of the countries of South America. It is now known that the couple had Argentine passports, according to which their names are Ludwig Gish and Maria Mayer.
Gish, Mayer and their two young children settled in Ljubljana in 2017. According to the Slovenian counterintelligence, the couple were «illegals» and worked for the SVR under false names. Gish was officially involved in the development of an IT startup, and Mayer opened an online art gallery.
During the search, local security forces confiscated a large amount of cash from them, «it took hours to count.» According to the interlocutors of the Guardian from the Slovenian counterintelligence, these funds were used to pay for the work of informants in different parts of Europe.
In August, Bellingcat investigator Khristo Grozev claimed that there could be about 20 «illegal» Russian spies remaining in Europe. One of them, under the name Maria Adela Kufeldt Rivera, launched a jewelry brand in Naples, and the other, under the guise of a Brazilian citizen, tried to get an internship at the International Criminal Court in The Hague.