Spies' children did not know they were Russian

The children of a Russian spy couple who returned home on Thursday after the largest prisoner swap between the West and Russia since the Cold War only found out their nationality on the flight to Moscow.

Artem Viktorovich Dultsev and Anna Valerevna Dultseva were posing as an Argentine couple living in Slovenia when they were jailed there.

Their children do not speak a word of Russian and did not know who President Vladimir Putin was, asking their parents who was greeting them upon their arrival, the Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

In total, 24 people jailed in seven different countries were exchanged on Thursday.

Sixteen were Western prisoners detained 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 were warmly welcomed, with Mrs Dultseva and her daughter receiving flowers and a warm embrace from President Putin.

"Buenas noches," the president said to the spies' children, as he greeted them in Spanish.

As reported by Argentinian media, the couple were known as María Mayer and Ludwig Gisch and arrived in Slovenia sporting their Argentinian passports in 2017.

The husband set up a start-up IT company under his alias name and the wife had an online art gallery.

The family used Ljubljana as their base and it was not until 2022 that the couple were arrested by Slovenian police on espionage charges.

Ahead of the large scale prisoner swap, Mr Dultsev and Mrs Dultseva were sentenced to 19 months in prison each, after pleading guilty to spying charges on Wednesday. But given their arrests in 2022, they were released on time served and ordered to leave Slovenia, as reported by the Associated Press.

It was not until Thursday, during the large scale Russia-West prisoner swap, that the Kremlin spies, and their children, were returned to Russia.

Life for 11-year-old Sofia and 8-year-old Gabriel, who were born in Argentina, changed thereafter and they only learnt they were Russian when the plane set off from Ankara to Vnukovo Airport, the Kremlin said.

“The children of the undercover agents asked their parents yesterday who had greeted them,” Mr Peskov said, adding: “They did not even know who Putin is.”

The Kremlin spokesman said that is how undercover agents (or "illegals") work, "making such sacrifices for the sake of their work and their dedication to their service".

Unlike "legal" spies, who are posted abroad under diplomatic or other official cover, illegals are on their own - working normal jobs, living in suburbs and operating without the diplomatic immunity enjoyed by other agents should they be caught.