08:24The children of intelligence agents Artyom and Anna Dultsev released and returned home as part of a large-scale West-Russia prisoner exchange, learnt they were Russian only when the plane left Ankara, Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in Moscow on Friday.
"Before that, they didn’t know they are Russian and that they were connected with our country. <...> They asked their parents yesterday who was the man who was greeting them. They didn’t even know who Putin was," Peskov continued.
He added that the couple could have been denied parental rights if they had not left the United States, as they could not see their children while in custody. The Kremlin spokesperson also explained that Russian law-enforcement agencies were involved in the exchange.
"This complex exchange was negotiated through the FSB and the CIA. This was the main channel through which the deal was reached. <...> We should, of course, give the highest assessment of the co-operation with the KGB, with the Belarusian Foreign Ministry, and the assistance that [Belarusian] President Lukashenko personally provided in compiling such a complex chain, and express our gratitude for this," he said.
Peskov commented on Western accusations that Moscow is filling up the 'exchange pool' with cases against foreign nationals in order to 'bargain with the West'.
"How do those who accuse Russia feel about the constant arrests of Russians abroad, the constant arrests of Russians by the United States? What are the goals of the United States? So, of course, this is [a] completely unjustified and absurd [accusation]," Peskov concluded.
The family was part of a historic prisoner swap between Moscow and five Western countries announced on Thursday, with 26 detainees released and returned to their countries overall. An American green card holder, activist Vladimir Kara-Murza, was also granted freedom and had flown to Germany.
The swap deal was confirmed by Biden on Thursday, as he addressed the nation and hosted the prisoners' family members in the Oval Office.
"Today, we're bringing home Paul, Evan, Alsu [and] Vladimir," Biden stated, noting all four have been imprisoned 'unjustly' in Russia. "And now, their brutal ordeal is over, and they're free."
Whelan, Gershkovich and Kurmasheva were released from Russian prisons and headed to Ankara, before making their flight back to the US airbase.
Twenty-six individuals - 24 adults and two minors - were freed on Thursday, following the biggest prisoner exchange between Russia and the West since the Cold War. Sixteen prisoners held in Russia and ten people, including two minors, in the US, Norway, Germany, Poland and Slovenia were released from jails as a part of the exchange.
'They didn’t know they were Russian' - Peskov on Moscow agents' children released in prisoner swap with Western countries
The children of intelligence agents Artyom and Anna Dultsev released and returned home as part of a large-scale West-Russia prisoner exchange, learnt they were Russian only when the plane left Ankara, Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in Moscow on Friday.
"Before that, they didn’t know they are Russian and that they were connected with our country. <...> They asked their parents yesterday who was the man who was greeting them. They didn’t even know who Putin was," Peskov continued.
He added that the couple could have been denied parental rights if they had not left the United States, as they could not see their children while in custody. The Kremlin spokesperson also explained that Russian law-enforcement agencies were involved in the exchange.
"This complex exchange was negotiated through the FSB and the CIA. This was the main channel through which the deal was reached. <...> We should, of course, give the highest assessment of the co-operation with the KGB, with the Belarusian Foreign Ministry, and the assistance that [Belarusian] President Lukashenko personally provided in compiling such a complex chain, and express our gratitude for this," he said.
Peskov commented on Western accusations that Moscow is filling up the 'exchange pool' with cases against foreign nationals in order to 'bargain with the West'.
"How do those who accuse Russia feel about the constant arrests of Russians abroad, the constant arrests of Russians by the United States? What are the goals of the United States? So, of course, this is [a] completely unjustified and absurd [accusation]," Peskov concluded.
The family was part of a historic prisoner swap between Moscow and five Western countries announced on Thursday, with 26 detainees released and returned to their countries overall. An American green card holder, activist Vladimir Kara-Murza, was also granted freedom and had flown to Germany.
The swap deal was confirmed by Biden on Thursday, as he addressed the nation and hosted the prisoners' family members in the Oval Office.
"Today, we're bringing home Paul, Evan, Alsu [and] Vladimir," Biden stated, noting all four have been imprisoned 'unjustly' in Russia. "And now, their brutal ordeal is over, and they're free."
Whelan, Gershkovich and Kurmasheva were released from Russian prisons and headed to Ankara, before making their flight back to the US airbase.
Twenty-six individuals - 24 adults and two minors - were freed on Thursday, following the biggest prisoner exchange between Russia and the West since the Cold War. Sixteen prisoners held in Russia and ten people, including two minors, in the US, Norway, Germany, Poland and Slovenia were released from jails as a part of the exchange.
The children of intelligence agents Artyom and Anna Dultsev released and returned home as part of a large-scale West-Russia prisoner exchange, learnt they were Russian only when the plane left Ankara, Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in Moscow on Friday.
"Before that, they didn’t know they are Russian and that they were connected with our country. <...> They asked their parents yesterday who was the man who was greeting them. They didn’t even know who Putin was," Peskov continued.
He added that the couple could have been denied parental rights if they had not left the United States, as they could not see their children while in custody. The Kremlin spokesperson also explained that Russian law-enforcement agencies were involved in the exchange.
"This complex exchange was negotiated through the FSB and the CIA. This was the main channel through which the deal was reached. <...> We should, of course, give the highest assessment of the co-operation with the KGB, with the Belarusian Foreign Ministry, and the assistance that [Belarusian] President Lukashenko personally provided in compiling such a complex chain, and express our gratitude for this," he said.
Peskov commented on Western accusations that Moscow is filling up the 'exchange pool' with cases against foreign nationals in order to 'bargain with the West'.
"How do those who accuse Russia feel about the constant arrests of Russians abroad, the constant arrests of Russians by the United States? What are the goals of the United States? So, of course, this is [a] completely unjustified and absurd [accusation]," Peskov concluded.
The family was part of a historic prisoner swap between Moscow and five Western countries announced on Thursday, with 26 detainees released and returned to their countries overall. An American green card holder, activist Vladimir Kara-Murza, was also granted freedom and had flown to Germany.
The swap deal was confirmed by Biden on Thursday, as he addressed the nation and hosted the prisoners' family members in the Oval Office.
"Today, we're bringing home Paul, Evan, Alsu [and] Vladimir," Biden stated, noting all four have been imprisoned 'unjustly' in Russia. "And now, their brutal ordeal is over, and they're free."
Whelan, Gershkovich and Kurmasheva were released from Russian prisons and headed to Ankara, before making their flight back to the US airbase.
Twenty-six individuals - 24 adults and two minors - were freed on Thursday, following the biggest prisoner exchange between Russia and the West since the Cold War. Sixteen prisoners held in Russia and ten people, including two minors, in the US, Norway, Germany, Poland and Slovenia were released from jails as a part of the exchange.