Christo Grozev, head of investigations at The Insider and former head of investigations for Bellingcat, revealed the incredible story of Olga Kolobova, nicknamed the “Cat lady”. The woman was known in Italy as Maria Adela Kuhfeldt Rivera and lived for over a decade in Naples, after previously residing in Malta.
“She had relationships with people close to the NATO headquarters in Naples, befriending the wives of generals. She had privileged access to Alliance information”, Grozev explained.
The spy introduced herself as a “Peruvian jeweler“, but according to the publication Il Messaggero, her true identity was that of a Russian agent. Grozev’s investigation revealed the truth, and he recounted on his YouTube channel:
“It was not a problem to prove that she was a Russian spy, because she had a passport with a specific set of numbers. It was clear that she was a Russian spy, and at one point she disappeared from Italy to return to Russia. For months, if not a year, I tried to discover the true identity of this person. And the only thing I could find that linked the false Peruvian identity living in Italy to the person living in Russia was her cat.”
The Cat that Gave Everything Away
The cat is named Luisa and was adored by the woman. “All her friends who knew her in Italy talked about her love for the cat”, Grozev recounts. “So I thought: if there is one thing that this woman can bring from her real life to her fake one, it would be her cat. For months, we tried to find a link between that cat in Italy and a cat in Russia“.
The discovery was incredible: a unique microchip worldwide. “After we found the microchip, we started looking in Russian databases to find an animal registered with a vet. And so it was: that cat had been registered at a veterinary clinic in Russia. So we consulted VK, the Russian version of Facebook, and found a woman named Olga Kolobova, who had liked and befriended that group of veterinarians and had a cat on her profile. The rest was easy.”
This is just the first part of a fascinating investigation. Grozev announces that the entire story will be published in a few weeks and promises to provide even more captivating details about the life and activities of the spy.