A spy from the cold who infiltrated the NATO command in Naples for 10 years and then flew to Moscow.
It was discovered thanks to a ten-month investigation conducted by Republic with the investigative site Bellingcat, the weekly Der Spiegel e The Insider who have rebuilt “the secret mission conducted for almost ten years by a mysterious woman, with an identity as complex as it is false: Maria Adela Kuhfeldt Rivera, born in Peru to a German father”.
A cosmopolitan and self-confident thirty-year-old who speaks six languages and started a company to produce jewelry, then entered the social circles of Naples and finally managed to infiltrate the staff of the NATO base and US 6th Fleet: the operational pinnacle of Western military power in Europe.
His real name is Maria Kolobova, daughter of a Russian officer. “A modern Mata Hari, who made a name for herself with her seductive ways and left a trail of broken hearts before disappearing into thin air”writes the newspaper.
The woman “it imposes itself on city life between vernissages and events”, inaugurates one “concept gallery” in which many take part. He manages to enter the Lions Club Naples Monte Nuovo, clubs “founded by officers of the Nato base of Lago Patria, even the logo follows the martial symbol of the Allied Joint Force. The members are practically all military personnel, employees and technicians of the Atlantic Alliance or the US VI Fleet. These are the commands that manage Nato missions and the activities of the US Navy in Europe”.
The spy had become a member of the Lions Club Napoli Monte Nuovo, composed of officers from the Nato base in Lago Patria
A club that “it is the perfect web in which the GRU agent has hooked numerous NATO officials, setting up a vast network of relationships”. “We do not know if she physically managed to enter the NATO base or the US command but there are strong indications of her presence during some ceremonies: the annual NATO balls, that of the Marine Corps, several charity evenings.“, writes Repubblica.
Which then continues: "Our investigation was unable to reconstruct what information was obtained by the spy, nor whether she was able to plant computer viruses on her friends' phones and computers. However, she did come into contact with key figures in NATO and the US Navy: no Russian agent had ever managed to penetrate the Atlantic Alliance's top brass so deeply."
“On September 14, 2018, Bellingcat and The Insider exposed the team of killers, publishing their documents. And the next day, Maria Adela suddenly left Naples on a flight to Moscow, never to reappear.”
It was not even possible to ascertain whether there is a link between this operation and another sensational intelligence story: the arrest of a French colonel serving in the Naples headquarters, who ended up in prison in Paris in the summer of 2020 on charges of having sold top secret dossiers to the GRU. However, Maria Adela had already disappeared”.
Article published on 26 August 2022 - 09:42
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