Children of swapped Kremlin spies didn't know they were Russian.

The children of the Russian couple, the Dulzavs, convicted in Slovenia for espionage, did not know about their Russian origins. It wasn't until their parents were exchanged in a 'historic deal' between Russia and the West. This is reported by Meduza and Reuters, citing Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.

The sentence for the couple Artem and Anna Dulzavs was handed down only in July. According to the WSJ, they arrived in Slovenia in 2017 with Argentine passports under the names Ludwig Ghish and Maria Rosa Maier Munoz. They were accompanied by two children.

"Maria Rosa" ran an art gallery and told acquaintances that she had left Argentina after being robbed by an armed gang in Buenos Aires. Her husband, "Ludwig Ghish", ran an IT startup. Overall, they started building their cover story at least since 2012. "Ghish" claimed that he was an Austrian citizen, born in Namibia to an Argentine woman. The woman claimed that she was Mexican and provided a birth certificate from Greece. They spoke English, German, and Spanish fluently without an accent.

Neighbors described them as "quiet" and "normal." The children attended a British international school.

However, as the WSJ reports, "Ludwig" was actually an elite Russian foreign intelligence officer from Bashkortostan, and "Maria Rosa" – an intelligence officer from Nizhny Novgorod. Before being detained in 2022, the couple used Slovenia as a base for trips to neighboring Italy, Croatia, and other European countries.

Slovenian officials claimed that the Dulzavs trained their two young children, warning that one day their parents might be captured. When this finally happened, the children were placed in state custody and transferred to another school. They were allowed regular visits with their parents in prison.

The Dulzavs' children - 11-year-old Sofia and 8-year-old Gabriel - only found out they were Russian when they arrived from Ankara at Vnukovo airport in Moscow after their parents were exchanged. The children were born in Argentina, do not speak Russian. And did not know who Putin was, asking their parents who this person meeting them was, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said to journalists.

Dulzava and her daughter received flowers and hugs from the Russian President Vladimir Putin. He greeted the children of the spies with the Spanish "Buenas noches".

Peskov commented that this is exactly how undercover agents work, "making such sacrifices for the sake of their work and dedication to their service."

However, Bellingcat investigative journalist Christo Grozev expressed doubts that the children did not know about their connection to Russia. According to him, the couple took their children to Russia several times, and they had fake Russian passports.

"Perhaps the children were too young to realize that they were meeting their grandparents," Grozev suggested.

Recall, Russian dictator Vladimir Putin met in the evening of August 1 at Moscow’s Vnukovo airport with Russian citizens released during a prisoner exchange. Among them was the Dulzav family - Artem, Anna, and their two children.

On August 1, a major prisoner exchange took place between Russia and Belarus on one side and Western countries on the other.

The largest prisoner exchange in the history of relations between Moscow and Washington took place at Ankara Airport, involving 24 people at once. The Russian side handed over 16 people to the American side (including U.S. citizens, dual nationals, and Russians), while the American side handed over 8 people to Russia (all of whom are Russian citizens).

Incidentally, German investigators are displeased with the release of Russian FSB hitman Vadim Krasikov during the prisoner exchange between Russia and the West that took place on August 1.