The children of a Russian spy couple who returned home on Thursday in the largest prisoner exchange between the West and Russia since the Cold War did not learn their nationality until on a flight to Moscow.
Artem Viktorovich Dultsev and Anna Valerevna Dultseva were imprisoned in Slovenia while pretending to be a couple living in Slovenia Asian Argentinian couple.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the children, who did not speak Russian and did not know who President Vladimir Putin was, asked their parents who greeted them when they arrived.
A total of 24 prisoners from seven different countries were exchanged on Thursday.
Sixteen were Western prisoners in Russian prisons and eight were Russian prisoners in the United States, Norway, Germany, Poland and Slovenia. Among them is Wall Street Journal reporter Alvin Gershkovich.
The Russian family of four received a warm welcome, and Mrs. Durtseva and her daughter accepted flowers and warm embraces from President Putin.
“Buenas noches,” the president said in Spanish as he greeted the spies’ children.
According to Argentine media reports, the couple, named María Mayer and Ludwig Gisch, arrived in Slovenia in 2017 with Argentine passports.
The husband founded a new IT company under his pseudonym, and the wife owns an online art gallery.
The family was based in Ljubljana until 2022, when the couple was arrested by Slovenian police on espionage charges.
Ahead of the massive prisoner swap, Mr Durtsev and Mrs Durtseva were each sentenced to 19 months in prison on Wednesday after pleading guilty to espionage charges. But according to the Associated Press, given their arrest in 2022, they were released on time and ordered to leave Slovenia.
It was only on Thursday that Kremlin spies and their children were returned to Russia as part of a massive prisoner exchange between Russia and the West.
The Kremlin said the lives of 11-year-old Sofia and 8-year-old Gabriel changed forever when they learned they were Russians when the plane flew from Ankara to Vnukovo airport.
“The children of the undercover agents asked their parents who greeted them yesterday,” Peskov said, adding: “They didn’t even know who Putin was.”
A Kremlin spokesman said this is how undercover agents work and “make such sacrifices for the sake of their work and dedication to service”.
