For more than ten years, two Russian spies lived in Buenos Aires. They called Ludwig Gisch and María Rosa Mayer Muños. They were married, their children were born in Argentina and moved like a middle class family. But they were fulfilling a secret mission for Russia.
Topos
By Hugo Alconada Mon.
eBook
This is the exciting story that the journalist Hugo Alconada Mon in his last book tells, Topos. The real history of the Russian spies that took Buenos Aires as the basis of operations. This Sunday he presented him at the Book Fair with his editor, Paula Pérez Alonsowho praised his dedication to work.
“Knee on the ground, Ludwig Gisch hurried the tranco. He adjusted the roof antenna of the O’Higgins 2191 street building, one of the highest in the Belgrano ravines. He had to finish fast or the goalkeeper would get nervous. I could demand that you retire or, worse, inform the administration of the consortium, that it would come with inconsistent questions “.
This is how Alconada Mon in the book. And later:
“Gisch had given them the same (and false) explanation to the goalkeepers of O’Higgins Street and those of Cabildo Avenue. He asked that he owned DSM & It, a businessman who provided computer services to people and companies, and wanted customers”.
But it wasn’t true, he wasn’t a computer scientist.
“The goalkeepers dealt, without knowing it, with an elite agent of Department 2, by Latin America, of the” SVR Director. With one of the “Soldiers of the Invisible Front”, according to Vladimir Putin, heir of the Tsaries, of Catalina the Grande, of Izif Stalin “.
In the presentation of the book, the journalist and his editor said that the couple was received as a hero in Moscow by Vladimir Putin In 2024, after an exchange of prisoners, after they finally stopped them, far from Buenos Aires.
Alconada my He began investigating the case in 2023, after reading a cable in the writing of the newspaper La Nación, where he works, and decided to capture the story in a book. Retrieved that all the book information was checked.
At the Book Fair, Alconada my He explained that the history of the spies cannot be understood without considering the context of Russia and the figure of Putin, who was a KGB agent before the fall of the Soviet Union. The author stressed that the conception of espionage in Russia is different from that of other countries. “For us, Espías are Jaime Stiuso or Fernando Pocino, eventually a spy who sends him to spy and moves the ligustrine, as my family already spied on me,” he laughed.
He also said that Putin – who belonged to the KGB years ago – does not abandon his men abroad. This perspective allowed him to understand, although not justifying the actions of the Russian spies.
“This story is a perfect example that reality exceeds fiction,” the author told the press.
Alconada Mon also said that the story about these Russian spies reveals an intricate process of transformation of identities that began in a small village 1500 km east of Moscow. He moved to Ekaterimburgo To study, a significant city, since there was recruited there. during a training in contracterrorism, he met his future partner, also spy. Only three months later, in 2004, they married and began an extensive preparation period in which they acquired the necessary skills to mimic with the western ones, learning to speak, behave and dress like them.
His adaptation was thorough, developing multiple identities, each with names, family stories and even specific cultural references. Between 2009 and 2022, they resided in Argentina under two different identities.
While simulating a common life in Argentinathe two Russian agents avoided any gesture that betrayed their true origin. As detailed in the book, She didn’t even pronounce a word in Russian during births. Neither did they listen to music from their native country, nor watch Russian television, nor cooked typical dishes. Everything was part of the strategy to build a completely disconnected identity from its original nationality.
The country where they created this false biography was Argentinabut his final destination was Sloveniaa key location for the access offered to the rest of Europa. According to the author, this was a “facade”: an official, documented story, which allows spy to be inserted into the target country.
In this case, He passed through an Austrian born in Namibia, son of an Argentina. She claimed to be Mexican born in Greece. Before reaching their final destination, they had to obtain valid passports, study, marry, vote and form a family in the intermediate country. This whole process was key for the covert operation to seem legitimate and go unnoticed for years.
For 20 years, they lived after a mask, adopting up to four different identities, each carefully built to resist any interrogation and maintain their facade as people originating from anywhere they claimed to be.
They were still in Buenos Aires when the War in Ukraine. They knew that the transfer to Sloveniatheir final destination, placed them in an extreme risk zone.
That trip marked the end of his stage in Argentina, where they had built their facade. From that point, everything indicated that the margin of error was minimized. And even so, in the midst of tension, they behaved like any family from the country: they made purchases, they looked for small pleasures, tried not to lose control.
In Slovenia They were finally arrested in 2022.
“Everything that is written happened,” he said Alconada my This Sunday at the Book Fair
