A couple of Russian spies living in Slovenia posing as Argentinians were included in Thursday’s massive prisoner exchange, though they were so deep undercover that their own two children were unaware of their true identity.
The family of four, the Dultsevs, were among eight Russians who were sent back to their home countries from the United States, Slovenia, Germany, and Norway, in exchange for the release of three Americans, an American green card holder, five Germans, including one from Belarus, and seven Russian political dissidents.
The children were not aware of their family’s connection to Russia, according to the Kremlin.
“Before that, they didn’t know that they were Russian and that they had anything to do with our country,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, per Reuters. “The children asked their parents yesterday who it was that was meeting them (in Moscow). They didn’t even know who [Russian President Vladimir] Putin was. This is how the ‘illegals’ work. They make such sacrifices out of dedication to their work.”
When their plane touched down in Russia, Putin was there to greet them and did so in Spanish because the children don’t speak Russian.
Artem Dultsev and Anna Dultsev were arrested in Slovenia in late 2022. They posed as Ludwig Gisch and Maria Mayer, an Argentinian couple. The Ljubljana regional court recently sentenced the duo to more than 1 1/2 years in prison, equivalent to time served, and ordered their expulsion from Slovenia as a part of the prisoner exchange, Slovenia’s 24.ur news portal reported.
Slovenian President Natasa Pirc Musar praised the way the exchange operation was conducted.
“Slovenia and its intelligence agencies worked tirelessly and with great sensitivity with our allies and partners in prisoner exchange which successfully concluded yesterday,” she said on X. “I would like to pay respect and compliment everyone involved in this difficult action that saved lives.”
Among the other people who were returned to Russia in the deal was Vadim Krasikov, an FSB hitman who was arrested and convicted in Germany for committing the murder of a former Chechen militant in a Berlin park in 2019.
He was convicted for the killing of Zelimkhan “Tornike” Khangoshvili, who was gunned down from behind near Kleiner Tiergarten. Witnesses saw the gunman throw the gun and a wig into the Spree River nearby but he was arrested shortly thereafter. During his trial, German judges said he was acting on the orders of Russian authorities.
The Biden administration had desperately sought to secure the release of Paul Whelan, a former Marine detained in Russia in 2018, and Evan Gershkovich, a Wall Street Journal reporter detained in March 2023, but the U.S. no longer had any high-value Russian assets in U.S. custody after giving up Konstantin Yaroshenko and notorious arms dealer Viktor Bout in two separate swaps in 2022.
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In the negotiations, Russia made its desire to get Krasikov home known. He became the lynchpin, but the U.S. had to convince a hesitant German government to release him, which President Joe Biden eventually did.
Biden thanked the allies involved in the deal in comments alongside the families of the Americans who were brought home in the deal.
