The children of a Russian spy couple who returned home on Thursday after the largest prisoner exchange between the West and Russia since the Cold War only discovered their nationality on their flight to Moscow.
Artem Viktorovich Dultsev and Anna Valerevna Dultseva posed as an Argentinian couple living in Slovenia when they were imprisoned there.
Their children don’t speak a word of Russian and don’t know who President Vladimir Putin while they were asking their parents who was waiting for them upon arrival, the Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
A total of 24 people held in seven different countries were exchanged on Thursday.
Sixteen were Western prisoners held in Russian jails and eight were Russian prisoners held in the US, Norway, Germany, Poland and Slovenia. Among them was Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich.
The Russian family of four was warmly welcomed. Mrs. Dultseva and her daughter were given flowers and a warm hug by President Putin.
“Buenas noches,” the president said to the spies’ children, greeting them in Spanish.
According to Argentine media, the couple’s names were María Mayer and Ludwig Gisch and they came to Slovenia in 2017 with their Argentine passports.
The man founded an IT startup under his alias and the woman had an online art gallery.
The family used Ljubljana as a base and it was not until 2022 that the couple were arrested by Slovenian police on suspicion of espionage.
Before the massive prisoner swap, Mr Dultsev and Ms Dultseva were sentenced to 19 months in prison after pleading guilty to espionage on Wednesday. But given their arrests are due in 2022, they were released on time and ordered to leave Slovenia, the Associated Press reported.
Only on Thursday, during the large-scale prisoner exchange between Russia and the West, were the Kremlin spies and their children returned to Russia.
The lives of 11-year-old Sofia and 8-year-old Gabriel then changed dramatically. They only discovered they were Russian when the plane took off from Ankara to Vnukovo airport, the Kremlin said.
“The children of the undercover agents asked their parents yesterday who had greeted them,” Peskov said, adding: “They didn’t even know who Putin was.”
The Kremlin spokesman said that this is how undercover agents operate: “They make such sacrifices for their work and their dedication to their service.”
