The Russian power headquarters, the Kremlin, confirms that the Russian couple, Artem Dultsev and Anna Dultseva, who were released in this week's extensive prisoner exchange between Russia and Western countries, are spies.
In Slovenia, the couple lived under false names and pretended to be an Argentine couple who ran an IT company and an art gallery in Slovenia's capital, Ljubljana, before they were arrested in 2022. Their two children did not know they were Russian citizens.
The children who arrived yesterday found out they were Russians when they were on the plane from Ankara, said the Kremlin's spokesperson, Dmitrij Peskov, to reporters in Moscow.
The two children do not speak Russian. When President Putin received the family at the airport, he greeted the children with "buenas noches" – Spanish for good evening.
Peskov further confirmed that Vadim Krasikov, who was also released, is an agent for the Russian security service, FSB. According to Peskov, the agent has served in the security service's secretive elite unit "Alfa".
Vadim Krasikov was convicted in 2021 in Germany for murdering a Chechen in a park in Berlin on orders from the Russian security service.
Ten Russians – eight prisoners and the two children – were released in the historic prisoner exchange. Putin praised the prisoners and said:
The Motherland never forgot you.
