The children of Russian spies learned their citizenship after a prisoner exchange

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

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

Their children do not speak Russian and did not know who President Vladimir Putin is, they asked their parents who greeted them when they arrived, said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.

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

Sixteen were Western prisoners held in Russian prisons 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 was warmly welcomed, with Mrs Dultseva and her daughter receiving flowers and a warm hug from President Putin.

“Buenas noches,” the president said to the spy children, as he greeted them in Spanish.

As reported by Argentine media, the couple is known as María Mayer and Ludwig Gisch and they arrived in Slovenia with their Argentine passports in 2017.

The husband founded an IT start-up under his alias and the wife had an online art gallery.

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

Before the exchange of prisoners, Mr Dultsev and Mrs Dultseva were sentenced to 19 months in prison each, after pleading guilty to the charges on Wednesday. But with their arrest in 2022, they were released on time and ordered to leave Slovenia, as reported by the Associated Press.

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

The lives of 11-year-old Sofia and 8-year-old Gabriel, who were born in Argentina, changed after they discovered they were Russians when the plane flew from Ankara to Vnukovo Airport, the Kremlin said.

“The children of those working undercover asked their parents yesterday who greeted them,” said Mr. Peskov, adding: “They didn’t even know who Putin was.”

A Kremlin spokesman said that this is how agents work, “making such sacrifices for their work and dedication to their work”.