Artyom Dultsev and Anna Dultseva, a Russian spy couple who spent years posing as Argentine immigrants to Slovenia, returned home as heroes last week with their two children, Sofiya, 11, and Daniil, 9.

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

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

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

Her husband's company, DSM & IT, reported a total profit of just a few thousand euros a year and both businesses had just one employee.

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

Mrs Kvas added that the neighbours sometimes gossiped about who the couple were and what they were doing, but most ignored it because they never caused any trouble.

In their first interview since the prisoner exchange, the Dultsev family spoke to Rossiya TV channel at a foreign intelligence facility.

"We told our children that we are Russian, we are Russians, we are the Dultsevs," Dultseva smiled, recalling the conversation on the plane from Türkiye before returning home.

“While in prison, we were sure that the country remembered us, and believed that Russia and the agency were supporting us,” Dultsev added.

Mrs. Dultseva and her husband said they would continue to work "to serve Russia."

Hai Dang - Anh Ngoc