A RUSSIAN spy reportedly posed as a jewelery designer for ten years and infiltrated NATO by offline commanders into honeytraps.
Maria Adela Kuhfeldt Rivera – actual identify Olga Kolobova – has been unmasked by Bellingcat as a spy working for Russia’s GRU international intelligence service.
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She was deployed for a decade as a seductive socialite and businesswoman whereas making shut connections that reached to the UK and so far as the Center East.
Maria Adela hopped her manner between between Rome, Malta, and Paris for years earlier than settling down in Naples, Italy.
Because the proprietor of a luxurious jewelery boutique, she charmed her manner into high-level social circles and positioned herself on the middle of town’s worldwide social gathering scene.
She even attended the balls held by NATO and the US Marine Corps.
And she or he managed to change into the secretary of the fundraising charity Lions Membership Napoli Monte Nuovo – linked to the NATO HQ.
Maria Adela, who speaks fluent Italian and English, reportedly “befriended quite a few NATO officers”.
One officer, who has not been recognized, instructed Bellingcat that he had a “temporary romantic relationship” together with her.
She grew to become reportedly near quite a few NATO officers – and a US Navy worker who she mentioned had “a little bit crush” on her.
In line with Bellingcat, she made up a again story to her associates about how was deserted in Russia by her Peruvian mom and raised by an abusive household.
In 2012, Maria Adela, the daughter of a colonel within the Russian army, married an Italian man.
However he was really Ecuadoran and Russian, and he died mysteriously on the age of 30 resulting from “double pneumonia and systemic lupus”.
It was after his loss of life that she settled down in Naples and began mixing with NATO diplomats.
One of many spy’s associates was Marcelle D’Argy Smith – the previous editor of the ladies’s journal Cosmopolitan.
She remembers Maria Adela selecting her up from Naples airport in a “very flashy automobile, perhaps an Audi convertible”.
“We have been such actually good associates,” she mentioned.
“She was like a goddaughter or a niece. It was upsetting to seek out out.
“She was very lovely, very understated. I did not assume different girls preferred her as a result of they realized she may, if she selected, be a menace.
“She had a lot of male associates however they by no means appeared worthy. She was so engaging and the boys seemed peculiar and I by no means understood it.”
Bellingcat additionally interviewed Colonel Sheila Bryant, then inspector normal of the US Naval Forces in Europe and Africa, who questioned Maria Adela’s story.
She mentioned the lady’s story was “complicated and unconvincing” and urged colleagues to “restrict entry” to extremely confidential army info round her.
All of a sudden, in 2018, Maria Adela purchased a one-way ticket from Naples to Moscow – and her shut associates within the West have by no means seen her since.
It was the identical yr Russia’s GRU international intelligence service carried out the tried assassination of Sergei Skripal on the streets of Salisbury.
It is believed Maria Adela thought her cowl had been damaged after GRU’s operations had been uncovered by intelligence businesses and made a hurried exit.
Maria Adela’s final social media publish spoke of a most cancers prognosis.
Bellingcat consider the lady who bought herself as Maria Adela was actually a GRU agent named Olga Kolobova – as recognized by photo-matching software program.
Investigators mentioned Maria Adela’s passport has not been activated since her return to Moscow.
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