Russian spy recounts life undercover in the West.

Both Dultseva and her husband were arrested in December 2022. Slovenian authorities had been monitoring the couple for months. After receiving a tip from a foreign intelligence agency, they raided the couple's home in Crnuce, a suburb of Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia.

Before her arrest, Anna Dultseva had done very well under the guise of an Argentinian artist named Maria Rosa Mayer Munos, an art gallery owner in Slovenia.

Even her two children were unaware that their family had any ties to Russia until they flew to Moscow last week as part of a prisoner exchange agreement between Russia and the West.

Her husband's company, DSM & IT, reports total profits of only a few thousand euros per year, and both businesses have only one employee each.

Majda Kvas, a 93-year-old neighbor of the Russian spy's family, said: "They never greeted anyone and lived completely isolated lives."

Ms. Kvas further shared that neighbors sometimes gossiped about who the couple were and what they did, but most ignored it because they never caused any trouble.

In their first interview since the prisoner exchange, the Dultsev family spoke with Rossiya television from a foreign intelligence facility.

"We told our children that we are Russian, we are Russian, we are the Dultsev family," Dultseva recalled with a smile, remembering the conversation on the plane from Türkiye before returning home.

She added: "While in prison, we are certain that the country always remembers us, and we believe that Russia and the authorities are supporting us," Dultsev said.

Dultseva and her husband declared they would continue working "to serve Russia."

Lighthouse - Anh Ngoc