How Russian agents posed as an Argentinian couple living in Slovenia since 2017

The couple’s two children were unaware of their parents’ true identities. Born in Argentina, they discovered their own Russian nationality on the plane taking them to Moscow on Thursday.

“Good night”. It was in broken Spanish that Vladimir Putin welcomed the children of Artem Dultsev and Anna Dultseva on Thursday, August 1st.a couple of Russian spies, released after being arrested in December 2022 in Slovenia, as part of a prisoner exchange between Russia and several Western countries. The two children, a boy and a girl, aged 8 and 11 respectively, do not speak a word of Russian. Born in Argentina, they were raised with Spanish as their mother tongue and grew up in Slovenia. They “only learned they were Russian when the plane took off” towards Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

Ludwig Gisch and Maria Rosa Mayer Muños, whose real names are Artem Dultsev and Anna Dultseva, immigrated to Slovenia in 2017, with Argentinian passports, according to an investigation by the American newspaper The Wall Street JournalBoth born in Russia and officers of the Russian foreign intelligence services, they married for the first time in Russia before creating their “legend” together in Argentina.

It all started in 2012 for Artem Dultsevwith a bus trip between Uruguay and Argentina, reports the Wall Street Journalwho was able to consult “hundreds of sealed documents, including birth and marriage certificates, flight records, Interpol notices and Argentine court files” to conduct his investigation. Anna Dultseva did not arrive at the same time as him, but joined him shortly after from Mexico. There, they gathered documents and created a new identity in order to apply for Argentine citizenship. In 2013, they had their first child, a daughter they named Sofia. Their second child, Daniel, was born in 2015.

Five years after their arrival in Argentina, the two spies left the country with their children, heading for Slovenia. The couple had been living in Ljubljana, the capital of the small European state, since 2017, reports the Slovenian media N1. To cover their spy activities, the couple simulated a professional activity. Artem Dultsev creates an IT company and Anna Dultseva opens an online art gallery. This business allows Anna Dultseva to travel around Europe from Slovenia, an ideal base.

But the couple’s “legend” is not limited to their professional life. At home, they make their children believe that they are Argentinian and raise them with Spanish as their mother tongue. According to their neighbors, interviewed by The Wall Street Journalboth parents speak Spanish (without an accent) to their children, while they also speak English and German with their friends. To ensure their coverage, the couple’s computers allow them to communicate securely with their supervisors in Moscow. Their system of encryption is so secure that neither the techniciansNeither the Slovenians nor the Americans have been able to decipher it. They also hide large sums of money at home.in a secret compartment of their refrigerator.

This undercover life begins to crack on February 24, 2022, the day marking the start of the war in Ukraine. On that date, the couple makes a quick trip to Argentina to apply for new passports and return immediately to Slovenia. According to The Wall Street JournalIt was this suspicious move that drew attention to the couple. A few months later, the Slovenian spy agency began investigating them.

Wiretaps, a review of their companies’ cash flow and a visit to Argentina ultimately confirmed the suspicions of the Slovenian spy agency, while at the same time the couple began spying on the Ljubljana-based Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators, a strategic body of the European Union (EU) that coordinates the regulation of electricity and natural gas within the EU. On 5 December 2022, the two spies were arrested at their home in Ljubljana and placed in detention pending trial. Their two children were placed in foster care.

After nineteen months in detention, according to Slovenian media N1, the spy couple finally pleaded guilty to the charges against them before a Slovenian court on Wednesday, July 31, 2024. They were sentenced to nineteen months in prison, and released the following day, their sentence corresponding to the time they had already spent in detention. The court also imposed a ban on returning to Slovenian territory for a period of five years, the British newspaper reports. The Guardian.

On Thursday, August 1, the couple reunited with their children in Turkey, before taking a plane to Moscow and being welcomed by Vladimir Putin, as part of the historic prisoner exchange between Russia and several Western countries. On X, Max Seddon, the Moscow bureau chief of the British newspaper The Financial Timesshares a video of this moment, which one might think was taken from the series The Americans.

Children of Artem Dultsev and Anna Dultseva “only learned they were Russian when the plane took off” towards Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, who was at the airport when the released prisoners arrived, told the Russian news agency Tass. “The children of sleeper agents asked their parents yesterday who had taken them in: they didn’t even know who Putin was”added the Kremlin spokesman, praising the sacrifices made by the two spies for the good of Russia.