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The children of Russian illegal spies Artem Dultsev and Anna Dultseva, who returned to Russia as part of the 24-person prisoner exchange that concluded yesterday, only learned their true nationality when the plane carrying them departed for Moscow from Ankara, Turkey.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters at a briefing that the children do not speak Russian and only learned who Russian President Vladimir Putin was when they stepped onto the tarmac in Moscow.
“When the children were coming down from the aircraft — they don't speak Russian — just like that, Putin greeted them in Spanish. He said ‘Buenas noches.’ They asked their parents yesterday who it was that was greeting them. They didn't even know who Putin was, but this is how illegals work and make such sacrifices for the sake of their work, for the sake of dedication [to their craft],” Russian news agencies quoted Peskov as saying.
The Dultsevs had already served time in Slovenia for espionage and could not remain in the country following a court order. According to Peskov, “there was a real threat of deprivation of parental rights if they stayed there.”
On 31 July 2024, a court in Ljubljana sentenced each of the Dultsev parents to 19 months in prison, with both pleading guilty to charges of espionage. The husband and wife were then released on time served and were ordered to leave the country.
This is not the first time that the children of Russian “illegals” have learned about their origins only after their parents’ arrests. The term “illegals” refers to Russian undercover spies who reside in foreign countries for years, or even decades, under false identities, gathering intelligence to send back to Moscow.
In 2010, ten Russian spies were detained in the U.S., including spouses Andrei Bezrukov and Elena Vavilova. The detainees were then exchanged in Vienna for four figures who had been convicted in Russia, including former Colonel Sergei Skripal of the Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces. As previously reported by The Insider, Bezrukov and Vavilova's Canadian-born sons, Tim and Alex, lived with their parents in a safe house. They adopted their mother's surname and were issued Russian passports, with Tim becoming Timofey Vavilov, and Alex becoming Aleksandr Vavilov.
As the brothers grew older, they sought to regain their Canadian citizenship. Canada’s Supreme Court ruled in their favor in 2019, and after obtaining their Canadian passports, they reportedly left Russia immediately.
The biggest exchange since the end of the Cold War
Yesterday’s prisoner exchange was even larger than the 2010 version, seeing the release of 24 people from prisons in six countries — Russia, the United States, Germany, Norway, Slovenia, and Belarus. It resulted in the release of U.S. citizens Evan Gershkovich, Paul Whelan, and Alsu Kurmasheva, as well as Russian political prisoners Ilya Yashin, Vladimir Kara-Murza, and Andrey Pivovarov, human rights activist Oleg Orlov, artist Alexandra Skochilenko, and Navalny aides Lilia Chanysheva, Ksenia Fadeeva, and Vadim Ostanin. The swap also included 5 German nationals: Rico Krieger, Herman Moyzhes, Kevin Lik, Demuri Voronin, and Patrick Schobel.
Gershkovich, Whelan, and Kurmasheva returned to the U.S., where they were greeted by members of their families, as well as President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland. The remaining 13 prisoners made their way to Germany.
In exchange, Russia received FSB hitman Vadim Krasikov, who murdered former Chechen military commander Zelimkhan Khangoshvili in Berlin in August 2019, as well as seven other convicted spies and fraudsters.
Krasikov was notably convicted following a joint investigation by The Insider and Bellingcat, which revealed Krasikov’s real name and obtained documents proving he was a member of the Russian intelligence services, after which he was handed a life sentence in Germany.
The Kremlin confesses
An even more elaborate homecoming was staged for the returning Russian prisoners. Russian presidential press secretary Peskov called the festivities, which took place on the evening of Aug. 1 at the Vnukovo-2 government terminal in Moscow, “a tribute to those people who serve their country and who, after very difficult trials, thanks to the very hard work of many, got the opportunity to return to their homeland.”
The Kremlin spokesman did not specify whether the exchanged Russian citizens knew before arriving in Ankara that there would be an exchange: “I can't say anything here, I don't have such information.”
Peskov refused to answer a question regarding the criteria used when compiling the agreed upon list of figures for the exchange, noting only that the “internal [mechanics] of negotiations” cannot be public. He also declined to comment on whether the exchange of former Kommersant and Vedomosti journalist Ivan Safronov and sociologist Boris Kagarlitsky had been discussed.
Safronov, a former defense correspondent, is currently serving a 22-year sentence for treason. Kagarlitsky, a Soviet dissident and academic, was sentenced to five years in prison in February of this year for the alleged “justification of terrorism.” His offense involved displaying a YouTube video that discussed Ukraine’s attack on the Crimean Bridge in October 2022.
As for the Russians returning home, Peskov confirmed that the exchanged hitman Vadim Krasikov served in the Alfa special forces unit within Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB):
“Krasikov is an employee of the FSB. When he served in Alfa, he served together with several members of the president's security detail. Naturally, they greeted each other when they saw each other yesterday.”
As noted by The Guardian, it is the first time the Kremlin has admitted one of its serving operatives is behind a murder on foreign soil. Previously, Moscow consistently denied involvement in incidents such as the 2006 poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko in London and the 2018 attempted murder of Sergei Skripal in Salisbury.
When Krasikov murdered Chechen exile Zelimkhan Khangoshvili in broad daylight in a Berlin park in 2019, the Kremlin denied any responsibility. “I categorically reject any link between this incident, this murder, and official Russia,” Peskov said at the time. However, in an interview earlier this year, Putin referred to Krasikov as a “patriot” who had “liquidated a bandit.”
Negotiations on the exchange of prisoners between Russia and the West have been ongoing for several years, through different channels and in a variety of formats. Read more about the exchange in The Insider’s piece from August 1.