The military point 400 | Maria Tsalla left Athens on January 4 and boarded a flight to Moscow. According to the Greek secret service, her real name is Irina Alexandrovna Smireva. His cover was blown by another case discovered in Slovenia
Maria Tsalla left Athens on January 4 and boarded a flight to Moscow. A hasty departure without too many explanations. Why Maria couldn’t give her: According to Greek intelligence, her real name is Irina Alexandrovna Smireva and she is a Russian spy. The latest to discover in an endless web across Europe. The plot is fascinating.
The good-looking woman in her 30s arrives in Greece in 2018, claims to be the children of immigrants abroad, says she sold her fortune in Brazil to settle in Attica and have a new experience. He wants to create order, he shows a birth certificate, he registers with the municipality, he does everything right. At least what appears at the registry office. She has financial means, says she is a photographer and then opens a shop in the Pangrati district of the capital. Sells handmade sweaters, jewelry. To help her, a saleswoman who today remembers the kindness and thoughtfulness when she taught her the craft. Maria was multilingual – she spoke at least three languages - she learned a little Greek and lived a very intense life. She has a partner, hangs out with people, seems inserted, uses social accounts to promote and shop for her products. A perfect mirror shattered by Slovenian police who unmask two self-proclaimed Argentines, Maria Munos and Ludwig Gisch, antique dealers and entrepreneurs actually Russian secret agents. Another lead emerges in Latin America, the network trembles.
Perhaps afraid of being discovered, Maria Tsalla decides to drop everything. Right decision as Slovenia seems to have found some connections and warns Greek services. The investigation begins with the personal details and the 007s immediately understand: the shopkeeper has fooled everyone by stealing the identity of a girl who died in December 1991. A textbook technique used during the Cold War and never abandoned. Spies usually prefer to steal young children’s first and last names because it’s easier to fabricate the past of someone who hasn’t lived much. the number one piece of commando-built legend, a believable story that will withstand the questions of an acquaintance, the attention of an overly curious neighbor and a police officer in the event of a stop for other reasons. Words count, daily gestures count. a tailored suit. All the more precisely and all the more the wearer can proceed in personal disguise. Maria wore that dress well, she might never have been found if it wasn’t for the flop of the alleged Argentine accomplices.
The details described by local media bear similarities to episodes that have transpired in recent months. The Greek has a husband-colleague who was until recently in Brazil, a country that has featured in the cases of other Russian spies in Holland and Norway. Two researchers pretending to be Brazilian: In the first episode, the protagonist had made some notes – a strange attitude – with the passages of his legend. Maria-Irina recalls the operation of a third Maria, Maria Adela, who fled Italy to Russia after gathering intelligence in Nato circles in Naples. She had tried – unsuccessfully – to obtain clean Peruvian documents, a bureaucratic obstacle that did not prevent her from entering Italy, running a business selling jewelry – actually Chinese stuff – developing useful relationships and leaving at the right time .
A quick release in September 2018, and with good reason: investigative site Bellingcat had published a report providing information on Gru Unit 29155, the Russian military intelligence agency responsible for attacking exiled Sergey Skripal with the deadly substance Novichok was suspected. He was afraid, he preferred to screw up what he had achieved over time and with a lot of patience, all stories form a path, they describe a repetitive, almost monotonous modus operandi, sometimes with little imagination. The legend’s creators like a common name like Maria, they have a passion for South America because it’s a good starting point to invent an existence from scratch, and they’re faithful to tradition. It applies to the reborn dead or shortwave radios for transmitting messages: If they continue to use the good old systems, because they work anyway.
March 17, 2023 (Change March 17, 2023 | 19:13)
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