Like a movie script, young Sofia and Daniel had no idea that their parents were undercover Russian spies pretending to be Argentine immigrants in Slovenia. The Kremlin said the children only found out their nationality when they were taken to Moscow. The parents – Artem Dultsev and Anna Dultseva – were among 24 prisoners released under the historic prisoner swap deal.
Artem Dultsev and Anna Dultseva were living in Slovenia as an Argentine couple and were later convicted of espionage. Their two children – Sofia, 11, and Daniel, 8 – joined them in Moscow from Turkey on Thursday, CNN reports.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the children “learned they were Russian when the plane took off from Ankara.”
Interestingly, as soon as he arrived in Moscow, Russian President Vladimir Putin greeted him at the plane terminal in Spanish because he did not speak Russian. Peskov said he did not even know who Putin was.
“When the children came down the stairs of the plane – they don’t speak Russian – and Putin greeted them in Spanish, he said ‘Buenas noches,'” Peskov said.
He said that later the children asked their parents who had welcomed them, because they did not even know who Putin was.
As the family descended the plane’s stairs, Anna held back tears and hugged the Russian president, who stood holding a bouquet of flowers on a red carpet at the airport terminal.
Putin greeted her by kissing her on the cheek and shoulder and also presented bouquets to her and her daughter.
In addition, they greeted the rest of the released Russians and later walked together on the red carpet as they disembarked from the plane.
The historic swap was the result of years of negotiations between the US, Russia, Belarus and Germany. It resulted in Berlin agreeing to Moscow’s main demand – the release of convicted Russian murderer Vadim Krasikov.
According to reports, a total of eight people, including Krasikov, have been repatriated to Russia in exchange for 16 people who were detained in Russia, including former US Marine Paul Whelan, Wall Street Journal reporter Ivan Gershkovitch and two other Americans.
On Wednesday, both Dultsev and Dultseva pleaded guilty to espionage charges in a court in Ljubljana. They were sentenced to serve time in prison.
Dultsev, who was undercover in Slovenia, introduced himself as an IT businessman named Ludwig Gish. He admitted his guilt and was sentenced to more than a year and a half in prison.
Dultseva, on the other hand, was presenting herself as Maria Rosa Mayer Muños, an art dealer and gallery owner. They were both set to be deported.
