The Kremlin says two children of Russian sleeper agents who returned to Moscow on August 1 as part of a prisoner exchange with the West did not know they were Russian until they had boarded a flight out of Slovenia, according to Russian state media.
The children’s parents, Artem Dultsev and Anna Dultseva, had been convicted of espionage by a Slovenian court just a day earlier. The couple had been posing as Argentinians after arriving in Slovenia in 2017 and were arrested in 2022.
The children also do not speak Russian, so President Vladimir Putin greeted them in Spanish as they arrived off the plane, said Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov.
Footage released by the Kremlin shows Putin saying “buenas noches” to the two children — Spanish for “good evening” — after hugging Anna Dultseva and handing her flowers.
Peskov also confirmed that the couple had been working for Russian intelligence as so-called “illegals” — a term for Russian deep-cover spies operating under unofficial covers — and said children learned of their parents’ ties to Russia on the flight. Neither child knew who Putin was before meeting him, he added.
Credit: Russian Government via Storyful
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