This family of Russian sleeper agents were flown to Moscow
in the biggest East West prisoner swap since the Cold
War. So deep undercover, their Children only found
out they were Russians after the flight took off.
The Kremlin said on Friday met by President Vladimir Putin
as they touched down, the Children knew no Russian
and were greeted in Spanish. According to a Kremlin
spokesperson, the DSEV, a husband and wife were
convicted in a Slovenian court of pretending to be Argentinians
in order to spy while in jail, they were
given restricted access to their Children and feared they could
lose their parental rights. The spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said
the group upon arrival were congratulated by Putin and those
in the military service were told they would be nominated
for state awards. One of the first off the
plane on Thursday was Vadim Krasikov, a hit man
released by Germany and an employee of Russia's FSB security
service. He was convicted by a German court of
killing a former Chechen militant in a Berlin Park in
2019. His release will be seen as a win
for Moscow which prides itself on bringing home intelligence operatives
arrested abroad but Germans spoken to by Reuters in Berlin
felt mixed about the trade. To be honest,
I find it a pity that Germany engaged in this
, releasing a killer who was then celebrated as a
hero in another country. The swap involved 24 prisoners
with 16 moving from Russia to the west and eight
prisoners held in the West being sent back to Russia
. Although Moscow released more prisoners than it received,
it was portrayed by Russian authorities as a victory and
appeared to go down well on the streets, the
president for such an exchange, that means he was
sure it was right. So I trust the president
and agree with his opinion, the multi country deal
appeared to be a one time exchange that does not
reset the antagonistic us Russia relationship, which has deteriorated
sharply since Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine.