Spies freed in prisoner swap talk about living under cover

Two sleeper agents returned to Russia in a prisoner exchange have spoken to state television about breaking the news to their Spanish-speaking children that they were, in fact, Russian.

Artyom Dultsev and Anna Dultseva, a married couple who spent years posing as Argentine expats in Slovenia while acting as "illegals", returned to Russia to a hero's welcome last week, with their two children, Sofiya, 11, and Daniil, 9.

Such spies live abroad long-term under assumed identities. In 2010, a similar couple returned to Russia in a prisoner swap after bringing up their sons as Canadians.

In their first interview since the exchange, which returned at least four Russian agents, the Dultsevs talked to Rossiya television channel at a foreign intelligence facility.

The Dultsevs were convicted in Slovenia last month for spying.

"We told the children that we are Russian, that they are Russian, that we are the Dultsevs" Dultseva said, smiling, recalling the conversation on the plane from Ankara.

Her husband said their daughter "had emotions, she started crying a little bit".

Their son "reacted more calmly to this but very positively", he added.

Dressed in pink shirt and dark jeans, the couple walked hand in hand with their children, who had been placed in foster care after their arrest in December 2022.

Dultseva was shown praising her children in Spanish — "muy bien" — as they said their first phrases in Russian.

She said she had found it hard to speak Russian again.

"You don't think in the language (Russian) — you are controlling yourself all the time and when we arrived we realised we couldn't speak," she said.

Russia, whose president is a former KGB agent, has praised the couple's dedication.

Dultseva vowed they would continue working "to serve Russia".