Two Russian deep-cover spies arrested in Slovenia have pleaded guilty in a swift court case that potentially paves the way for them to be included in a prisoner exchange between Russia and the west.
The pair, whose real names are thought to be Artem Dultsev and Anna Dultseva, were arrested in late 2022, and are believed to be “illegals” – deep-cover Russian spies trained to impersonate foreigners, who spend years living abroad in their cover identities. They posed as Ludwig Gisch and Maria Mayer, an Argentinian couple, and spoke to their two children in Spanish. She ran an online art gallery and he had an IT business, but all the while they secretly worked for Russian intelligence.
The couple pleaded guilty to charges of spying and falsifying documents, the Ljubljana regional court said in a statement. The court sentenced them to more than a year and a half in prison, equivalent to time served, and ordered their expulsion from the country. They were also banned from returning to Slovenia for a period of five years.
It is believed the couple took advantage of Slovenia’s position inside the Schengen free movement zone to perform tasks across Europe for Russian intelligence. One source previously told the Guardian that during a search of an office used by the pair, police found so much cash that it took hours to count. The pair’s two children were taken into foster care after their arrest and continued to attend an international school in Ljubljana. It is not clear what will happen to them now.
After the hearing, the pair were escorted by police from a rear entrance of the court. They held papers up to their faces in an effort not to be caught on camera. Last year, a source in Ljubljana with knowledge of the case said the couple had refused to cooperate after their arrest and had said nothing to investigators, but added that Russian officials had swiftly admitted in private that the pair were intelligence officers and discussions had started over a possible exchange.
The Slovenian news outlet N1 cited anonymous sources claiming the two spies would be part of an imminent prisoner exchange. The speculation comes amid reports that numerous Russian prisoners have been moved from their last known locations, including a number of political prisoners. On Tuesday, a German sentenced to death in Belarus, a staunch Russia ally, was pardoned by the country’s authoritarian president, Alexander Lukashenko.
Washington and Moscow have been locked in low-profile negotiations for months over a possible prisoner swap, with the White House keen to free US prisoners held in Russian jails, including the Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who was sentenced earlier this month to 16 years for espionage, charges denied by Gershkovich, his employer and the US government.
Russian authorities have been accused of ordering the arrest of Gershkovich and others with a view to obtaining “bargaining chips” for use in a potential exchange. The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, has made clear that his key target for release is Vadim Krasikov, a Russian assassin who shot dead a Chechen exile in a Berlin park in 2019.
