The National Intelligence Service of Greece reported on a married couple who were engaged in spying for Russia. This is reported by The Guardian with reference to the Greek authorities.
The suspects are known as Campos Wittich and Maria Tsalla. According to journalists, Fittikh's real name is Shmyrev (name unknown), and Maria Tsalla's real name was Irina Romanova. Later, when she got married, she changed her surname to Shmyreva. The information about the espionage was reported to the Greek authorities by British intelligence M16.
Wittich lived in Brazil, and Zalla lived in Greece. They both acted undercover in the framework of scenarios invented for them. Wittich ran several 3D printing shops in Rio de Janeiro and dated a local girl. He told his girlfriend that he was the child of an Austrian father and a Brazilian mother, raised by his grandparents in Vienna.
Tsalla owned a knitting shop in Athens and was a photographer. She came to Greece on a Mexican passport as part of a repatriation program, she claimed to be Greek.
They both disappeared in January. Tsalla told her relatives that she was going on a business trip for a month, but she never returned to Greece. Wittich, according to his girlfriend, went to Malaysia and stopped communicating in the middle of the trip. His partner launched a social media campaign to find the missing man, later it turned out that he was suspected of espionage.
The imminent departure of Zalla and Wittich is presumably due to the fact that several spies with whom they could work were detained in Brazil and the European Union. The Greek authorities believe that the couple are now in Russia.
The Kathimerini publication, citing Greek intelligence, writes that Tsalla and Wittich were “illegal” spies: for such spies, the special services specifically come up with a completely new identity, often using information and names of people who have already died. From the moment they were placed abroad, the «illegals» live and behave according to a fabricated story.
According to Philenews, Tsalla and her husband passed information from other spies to the Russian special services. European intelligence agencies have yet to find out what specifically interested the woman — she previously traveled a lot. Greek intelligence also reported that Tsalla was visiting Brazil, presumably to meet with Wittich.
On March 25, the Slovenian authorities announced the arrest of a Russian couple suspected of espionage. They lived in the country on Argentine passports, their names are Ludwig Gish and Maria Mayer. 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.