Interview with a couple of agents: "Told the children they were Russians"
They spied as "Illegals" for the Russian intelligence service in Slovenia, were exposed, and returned last week as part of a prisoner exchange to Moscow: The agent couple Dulzew speaks out for the first time on state TV.
After returning to Russia as part of a large-scale prisoner exchange, a Russian agent couple has spoken out publicly for the first time. "When I saw the honor guard from the window of the plane, I cried," Anna Dulzewa described in an interview broadcast on Monday evening on Russian state television the moment of her return to Russia. Her daughter Sofiya told her, "It's the first time I've seen you cry."
Together with her husband Artiom, Dulzewa lived for five years in Slovenia as a Russian spy under false names and with fake passports. In 2022, both were arrested and last week were convicted of "espionage and document forgery." However, the couple was soon released as part of a prisoner exchange between Russia and Western states and received a military welcome in Russia last Thursday.
Children lived with foster families
The Dulzews posed as Argentine immigrants in Slovenia. According to their parents, the 11-year-old daughter Sofiya and her 9-year-old brother Daniil only found out on the flight to Russia that their parents were Russian spies and that their previous identity was completely fabricated. "We told the children that we are Russians, that they are Russians, and that we are the Dulzews," said mother Anna Dulzewa, who previously lived in Slovenia under the name Maria Rosa Mayer Munos and reportedly only spoke Spanish with her children.
Sofiya "was emotional, she cried a little," said her father Artiom Dulzew. Son Daniil "reacted a bit more calmly, but very positively," reported Dulzew, whose codename was Ludwig Gisch. After the couple's arrest in Slovenia, the children were placed in foster families. "The most important thing for us is family and family, that is our country," said Dulzew further.
The couple was active as so-called "Illegals" for the Russian intelligence service. These sleeper agents build a false existence over several years, under whose cover they obtain information for the Russian state. The speaker of the report on Russian state television described these agents as "high-class specialists." They dedicate their entire lives to "serving the motherland" and make "sacrifices that a normal person cannot understand." The now freed spy Dulzewa said she would "continue to serve Russia."
The case of the Dulzews is reminiscent of a spy couple convicted in Germany who, under the names Heidrun and Andreas Anschlag, spied on EU and NATO secrets, among other things, with the help of a Dutch official. Both posed as Austrian-born South Americans and lived undetected in Germany for more than two decades. The couple was convicted in 2013 in Stuttgart of "espionage in particularly serious cases" and sentenced to several years in prison. Russia then announced that it would "repatriate" the two as soon as possible. At the time, the court could not find out much about their true identity. Both have since been transferred to Russia, with the woman being transferred shortly after her conviction in 2014.
Following their release from prison as part of an international prisoner exchange, the Dulzews, who had spied for Russia in the European Union, returned to Russia with a military welcome. The European Union has been closely monitoring such activities and has taken measures to counteract espionage within its borders.
