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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Shaun Walker

Russian spies sentenced in Slovenia after pleading guilty

Exterior of eight-storey modern office building
A building in Ljubljana where the two spies had an office. Photograph: Ali Zerdin/AP

Two Russian deep-cover spies arrested in Slovenia have pleaded guilty in a swift court case that potentially paves the way for them to be included in a prisoner exchange between Russia and the west.

The pair, whose real names are thought to be Artem Dultsev and Anna Dultseva, were arrested in late 2022, and are believed to be “illegals” – deep-cover Russian spies trained to impersonate foreigners, who spend years living abroad in their cover identities. They posed as Ludwig Gisch and Maria Mayer, an Argentinian couple, and spoke to their two children in Spanish. She ran an online art gallery and he had an IT business, but all the while they secretly worked for Russian intelligence.

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