#Kremlin Acknowledges Convicted #Assassin Is a Russian #FSB Agent
Vadim #Krasikov, who was returned to #Russia in the big prisoner swap, received a hero’s welcome from President #Putin, along w/others who were freed.
#Russia #MafiaState #geopolitics #law #Security
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/02/world/europe/vadim-krasikov-assassin-russia-fsb.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare&sgrp=c-cb
The convicted #assassin who was the linchpin of the biggest prisoner swap in decades is a member of the most powerful #security agency in #Russia, the #Kremlin acknowledged Fri, & had served in a special unit w/some agents who now guard #Putin.
The ties help explain Putin’s determination to free the assassin, Vadim #Krasikov, from the #Germany prison where he was serving time for #murder.
This was the first time that #Moscow had admitted that #Krasikov had been working for the Russian state in the Federal Security Service, or #FSB, an agency that is a successor to the Soviet #KGB, in which #Putin served in the early stage of his career. The FSB was also the agency that was at the center of the negotiations with the #CIA about the swap, Dmitri S. Peskov, the #Kremlin spox, said.
#Peskov also revealed that the 2 #children —Sofia, 11, & Daniel, 8 — of Artyom & Anna #Dultsev, who had served as undercover #spies in the Russian “illegals program” & were imprisoned in #Slovenia, had only learned while on the plane to Moscow that they were Russian & “had anything to do” w/ #Russia.
The children apparently believed they were Argentine, since their parents had posed in Slovenia as a couple from #Argentina.
A pair of #spies so deep undercover that their own #children did not even know they were Russian were welcomed back to Moscow personally by #Putin last night amid the largest East-West prisoner swap since the Cold War.
'Illegals' #ArtemDultsev & #AnnaDultseva were posted in #Slovenia's capital Ljubljana where they posed as #Argentina citizens while spying for #Russia's #SVR #intelligence.
Operating under the cover identities of Ludwig Gisch & Maria Mayer, Artem #Dultsev ran an IT start-up company & his wife ran an online art gallery while secretly working on behalf of the #Kremlin - completely unbeknownst to their own kids.
Presidential press sec Dmitry Peskov today boasted that their two children - Sofia, 11, & Daniel, 8 - were none the wiser.
They never learned Russian & were only informed of their heritage once the whole family had boarded the plane taking them back to meet #Putin at Vnukovo airport, Peskov said.
'Before that, they didn't know that they were Russian & that they had anything to do w/our country,' Peskov told reporters.
'And you probably saw that when the children came down the plane's steps that they don't speak Russian & that Putin greeted them in Spanish. He said ''buenas noches''.'
‘Maria’: “Darling, the kids say they hate us because we won’t take them to Disneyland!”
‘Ludwig’: “Hold my beer…”
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