They never knew: Russian spies' children kept in the dark

Among the spies who returned to Moscow on Thursday were a pair of so-called illegals, deeply undercover agents—Artyom and Anna Dulcev. According to their official "legend," they were an Argentine family who moved to Europe. Their children have just learned that they are Russians.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov confirmed on Friday that Artyom and Anna Dulcev are intelligence officers, so-called illegals, or sleeper agents.

"Their children only learned that they were Russians after the plane took off," said Peskov. "Previously, they did not know that they were Russians."

The children, a boy and a girl, do not know Russian. Putin greeted them in Spanish.

Peskov said the children "didn't even know who Putin is." In his opinion, this shows the great "sacrifices" illegals make in their work for the country.

As previously established by Western media, the Dulcevs arrived in Argentina as young people, where they legalized themselves under false identities. Dulcev (who used the name Ludwig Gisch) claimed to be the son of an Argentine woman born in Namibia. According to the legend, his wife, using the name Maria Munos, was supposed to be a Mexican born in Greece. After five years, the couple moved with their children to Slovenia, where they lived as a "normal family" with an unusually high frequency of traveling around Europe and a significant amount of cash kept in their apartment (as established by investigators).

The couple was arrested in Slovenia in 2022. On the last day of July this year, a Slovenian court sentenced them to 19 months in prison for espionage (their time in detention was counted towards the sentence). On August 1, they were among the spies and Kremlin agents exchanged for political prisoners.

Peskov said that during the time the parents were in prison, they rarely had the opportunity to meet with their children, who were staying with a foster family, and "feared they might be deprived of parental rights." According to media reports, no relatives came forward for the children because such actions would risk exposure.