Russian beauty spies infiltrating NATO? The "joint investigation" of the Western media was counterattacked by Russian cartoons

Source: Global Times

[Global Times special correspondent in Italy and Germany Xie Yahong, Zhaodong, Liu Haoran, Liu Yupeng] Jewelers, socialites, beautiful widows, female spies... Recently, through a "joint investigation", a number of Western media have started a female "GRU" (General Intelligence Bureau of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces) spy who claimed to have been "undercover" in Italy for 10 years, claiming that she quietly entered the social circle of NATO officials as a "social celebrity" and obtained intelligence through her own beauty and resources.

However, as to whether the so-called "undercover" completed his mission and what kind of information he obtained, this investigative report failed to justify itself, and was ridiculed by Russian officials.

There was a brief marriage

According to the British "Daily Mail" reported on the 28th, this "joint investigation" was jointly carried out by the Italian "Republic", the German "Der Spiegel" weekly, the Netherlands-based independent investigative news website Bellingcat and the Russian opposition independent news website "Insider". It took the workers 10 months to write an "investigative journalism report" titled "How a GRU Agent Entered the Inner Circle of Italy's NATO With Charisma." Relevant media said that on the one hand, its news materials came from publicly available information, and on the other hand, mainly from insiders who had interacted with "female spies".

The story revolves around a mysterious woman named "Maria Adra". Adela was reported to have a troubled life, she was born in the Peruvian city of Callao, the mother is Peruvian, the father is German, but her mother was raised at an early age. In 1980, the mother entered the Soviet Union with her daughter for the Moscow Olympics, but returned to Peru for "urgent matters" and entrusted the young Adra to a local family in the Soviet Union. Abused by his adoptive parents, Adela longed for life in Western Europe and left Russia as an adult.

She allegedly lived in Rome and Malta between 2009 and 2011 and deliberately ran a "white and rich beauty" personality in her resume — she was fluent in English and Italian, first studied gemology at a university in Rome, visited a number of fashion companies, and then went to Paris, France to obtain an MBA. Her resume also shows that she had a brief marriage in 2012, but her husband died of a strange illness at the age of 30 and allegedly suffered from "bilateral pneumonia" and "systemic lupus erythematosus" before his death.

After the death of her husband, Adela settled in Naples (where the NATO Joint Army Command is located), registered the company and started a jewelry business. At first, she simply sold low-priced jewelry as "high-end jewelry" to some ordinary local women who did not have much money. As the business grew, she began to run a luxury jewelry business while opening high-end clubs and socially managing to attract the attention of Lions Clubs International, the world's largest charitable service, the Naples branch of which was founded by a NATO official. Since Adela knows many local celebrities, lions believe that recruiting her as a branch leader will bring more resources and contacts; Adela, on the other hand, used this position to be acquainted with a number of NATO officials, and secretly carried out intelligence work using the "gentle trap" constructed by one hand.

There is no shortage of NATO officials in the social circle

According to Bellingcat, Adela's social circle at that time included NATO staff or military officers of American, Belgian, Italian and German nationalities, who visited each other's homes and participated in many dances and fundraising parties organized by NATO and the US military. But her origins and background raised questions about Bryant, then U.S. Navy Inspector General, who had said, "Who would have abandoned their own daughter in the Soviet Union at the time?" Bryant, on the other hand, agrees that Adra's luxury living is disproportionate to its revenue. For example, she often changed mansions over a period of time. In his interactions with Adra, Bryant deliberately avoids any sensitive topics that might involve military secrets.

In September 2018, just after the Western media exposed the so-called "British-Russian double-sided spy was poisoned in Britain", Adra was suspected of being recalled by the organization, and on the 15th of the same month, he bought a one-way ticket from Naples to Moscow and disappeared. At present, the media cannot judge whether the so-called "Russian female spy" has achieved its goal. But they say Western counterintelligence agencies have been unable to detect the "lurker"; Although Adela is very well-connected, there is no evidence that she has personally entered a NATO military base.

Media such as the Newspaper Repubblica claimed that through facial recognition software, Adra's real identity was found to be Olga Kolopova, a Russian woman born in 1982. Although the matching degree of the two contrast photos is only 35%, media workers believe that this is the error caused by the "age difference" of the photo people. Later, the media found that the two people's life experiences and trajectories highly coincided, and also found that a social communication software avatar used by Kolopova was completely consistent with a previous avatar of Adra's Facebook account.

"Taking the opportunity to hype up Russia-related issues"

In the face of the absurd storyline reported by Western media, the Russian Embassy in Italy released a satirical cartoon of Russian painter Vasha Loshkin on the social platform on the evening of the 26th. In the comic, an Italian man is surrounded by armed agents, and the following text says: "If you can see spies everywhere, it may be because the Repubblica has read too much." ”

The Russian Tahragsha news agency reported on the 27th that the Italian parliamentary election is imminent, and the country has used the Russian-Ukrainian conflict to hype russia-related issues in the election campaign. The Italian Democrats even asked the people to take sides between Russia and Europe in their propaganda posters.

In response, the Newspaper Repubblica issued a statement saying that "the Russian Embassy did not answer our questions, but relied on a frustrating cartoon to make fun of our investigation, portraying our readers with the most negative stereotypes." We would like the Ambassador to comment on our report." German Interior Minister Nancy Füsser also said the perception of the Russian threat had changed. Since the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, the threat of Russian espionage, disinformation and cyberattacks has taken on another dimension.

Netizens have mixed reviews of the story of female spies, and some people have reminded European countries that they should indeed increase their counter-espionage efforts. Some people also sarcastically said: "Italy says that Russia has a stereotype, how can it be a bit of a thief shouting to catch a thief?" ”