"J'ai dit aux enfants dans l'avion qu'ils étaient russes"
Ils ont espionné en tant qu'"Illégaux" pour le service de renseignement russe en Slovénie, ont été démasqués et sont revenus la semaine dernière dans le cadre d'un échange de prisonniers à Moscou : le couple d'agents Dulzew parle pour la première fois à la télévision d'État.
Après leur retour en Russie dans le cadre d'un vaste échange de prisonniers, un couple d'agents russes a pris la parole publiquement pour la première fois. "when I saw the honor guard from the window of the plane, I had to cry," Anna Dulzewa a décrit dans une interview diffusée sur la télévision d'État russe lundi soir, se souvenant du moment de son retour en Russie. Sa fille Sofiya lui a dit, "It's the first time I've seen you cry."
Avec son mari Artiom, Dulzewa a vécu pendant cinq ans en Slovénie sous de faux noms et avec de faux passeports, se faisant passer pour des immigrants argentins. En 2022, tous deux ont été arrêtés et condamnés la semaine dernière pour "espionnage et faux documents". Peu après, le couple a été libéré dans le cadre d'un échange de prisonniers entre la Russie et les États occidentaux et a reçu un accueil militaire en Russie jeudi dernier.
Les enfants vivaient avec des familles d'accueil
Les Dulzews se sont présentés en Slovénie comme des immigrants argentins. Selon leurs parents, leur fille Sofiya, âgée de 11 ans, et son frère Daniil, âgé de 9 ans, ont découvert sur le vol pour la Russie que leurs parents étaient des espions russes et que leur identité précédente était entièrement fabriquée. "We told the children that we are Russians, that they are Russians, and that we are the Dulzews," a dit la mère Anna Dulzewa, qui avait 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 more calmly, but very positively," reported Dulzew, whose codename was Ludwig Gisch. After the couple's arrest, the children were placed with foster families in Slovenia. "The most important thing for us is family and family, that is our country," said Dulzew.
The couple was part of the so-called "Illegals," working for the Russian intelligence service. These sleeper agents build a false existence over several years, under whose cover they provide information to the Russian state. The speaker of the report on Russian state TV 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 an agent couple convicted in Germany, who under the names Heidrun and Andreas Anschlag, among other things, spied on EU and NATO secrets with the help of a Dutch official. Both presented themselves as Austrian-born South Americans and lived undetected in Germany for over two decades. The couple was convicted in 2013 in Stuttgart for "espionage in particularly serious cases" and sentenced to several years in prison. Russia at the time announced that it would "repatriate" the two as soon as possible. The court could not find out much about their true identity at the time. Both were later transferred to Russia, with the woman being transferred shortly after her conviction in 2014.
In their interview on Russian state TV, Anna Dulzewa revealed that their 11-year-old daughter Sofiya and 9-year-old son Daniil were unaware of their parents' true identities as Russian spies, having lived as Argentine immigrants while posing as foster children in Slovenia. Upon their return to Russia, the Dulzews, formerly known as "Illegals" working for the Russian intelligence service, were welcomed as former prisoners, having served time for espionage and document forgery.
