In a historic move last Thursday, the United States and Russia executed one of the largest prisoner exchanges in post-Soviet history. This sweeping deal, which involved at least seven countries, saw the release of two dozen detainees, including former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan and Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich.
The children of two Russian intelligence agents, who were among the detainees released as part of a historic prisoner swap only discovered their nationality when they were being flown to Moscow, the Kremlin said.
Undercover Operation
Their parents, Artem Dultsev and Anna Dultseva, were among 24 prisoners swapped as part of a complex, multi-country deal that saw high-profile American detainees and Russian dissidents freed in return.
The pair had been posing as an Argentine couple in Slovenia where they were convicted of spying. Their two children flew back with them on Thursday from Turkey. Artem Dultsev and Anna Dultseva had maintained their cover so effectively that their own children did not know they were Russian.
Operating under the false identities of Ludwig Gisch and Maria Mayer, Artem ran an IT start-up company, and his wife ran an online art gallery while secretly working on behalf of the Kremlin.
Kremlin Reaction
The boy and girl “found out that they were Russian only when the plane took off from Ankara,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists.
Russian President Vladimir Putin greeted them on the tarmac in Spanish as they didn’t speak Russian and didn’t even know who Putin was, according to Peskov.
“When the children disembarked and saw President Putin, who greeted them in Spanish with ‘Buenas noches,’ (good night), they didn’t recognize Putin or understand who he was,” Peskov said. “They even asked their parents who was meeting them.”
The operation was the result of years of complex behind-the-scenes negotiations involving the US, Russia, Belarus, and Germany. The negotiations ultimately led Berlin to agree to Moscow’s key demand—releasing convicted Russian assassin Vadim Krasikov.
